The rare gem: a field measuring 40 meters by 20, like handball, on synthetic turf, if possible outdoors (but not necessarily, we’ll come back to that), and with barriers around it so that the players can locate the boundaries of the field . This is the research, at the start of the school year, for blind football players from Unadev Bordeaux (National Union of the Blind and Visually Impaired). However, the team has two players in its ranks, Frédéric Villeroux and Mickael Miguez, as well as a coach, Yannick le Colvez, Paralympic champions with the Blues. However last season, in full preparation for the Games, the Bordeaux club was obliged to play its matches at home… in Bondy, in Seine-Saint-Denis, lack of available land in the Bordeaux metropolis. And the situation is not yet resolved.
However, Yannick Le Colvez does not make it an illness either. “It is up to us to go see the different town halls to be able to have this provision of land. But it is true that for the moment, training is resuming and the first objective is not to find land in “Now, if we had found him, it would be a stone less in the shoe.” explains the Bordeaux coach. It must be said that there is no fire either. The French blind football championship is played in the form of “platforms”, meaning that each team takes turns hosting several matches at home, on the same day. The Bordeaux date is scheduled for February 8.
A “desire”, to play at the Palais des sports in Bordeaux
A date that Fréderic Villeroux has checked in his diary. The captain of the Blues, scorer et author of the decisive shot on goal in the final of the Games, in front of nearly 3 million viewers, hopes to build on this success and share it with the public. At the edge of the field, “before, it was family or colleagues. But now, thanks to the Games, there is a new demand from people who saw it on TV, who came to the stadium. If we can organize it in Bordeaux, this would be great to thank the people who helped us and to allow the Bordeaux public to see blind football.”
Discussions are underway with several town halls in the Bordeaux area. But number 10 of the Blues imagines matches at the Palais des Sports and its 2,700 seats in the heart of Bordeaux. “A wish, a desire for sportsmanship”, he describes. “But, can we put a blind football field there?” he asks himself. In any case, the room, occupied by the Burdis volleyball players and the JSA Bordeaux basketball players, is apparently free on February 8.
1h30 bus ride to training
Because it’s all about adaptation in this sport. There is only “five-six” areas specific to blind football in France, describes Yannick Le Colvez, between Lens, Nantes and the Paris region. But it is also possible to adapt an 11-a-side football field… with a little willpower. “The barriers we have must weigh around 60 kilos. There are 40 for a piece of land. When you have enough hands, political will and when people are simply happy to come together and work collaboratively, it’s is entirely feasible”, explains the coach.
And it’s even more complicated for training. Last year, Fréderic Villeroux and his teammates traveled between the CREPS in Talence, an indoor football complex in Mérignac and the headquarters of the Gironde district in Cenon. “Travel, for anyone with a disability, is a problem. We have to find someone who can take us or take the bus, the tram. So depending on where you live, well it can be limiting”recognizes Fréderic Villeroux. “Afterwards, being in the French team, we have a duty to be present during training. So even if you have 1h30 from Mérignac to go to Cenon, you find a solution.” He even confides that these constraints and the fact of playing on fields of disparate quality have probably improved his ability to adapt. The one that led him to the Paralympic title.
