Shillong, Dec 19: Meghalaya clinched victory in the final of the 9th Men’s IBFF National Blind Football Championship 2025 by beating hosts Uttarakhand 1-0 in Dehradun yesterday.
This is the fourth time the title has been won by Meghalaya, the last having come in 2022.
There were eight participating men’s teams – Meghalaya, Uttarakhand, Kerala, Odisha, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Gujarat. Running simultaneously was the 5th Women’s Championship but Meghalaya did not participate in this.
Klingson Marak, who has represented the Indian national team, scored the winning goal in the final. He also scored two hat-tricks in the group stage.
Meghalaya began the tournament with a 4-0 win against Odisha, with a Klingson treble and one goal by Johnborlang Pyngrope, another prolific scorer for the state team.
They then lost to Uttarakhand 2-1, with Klingson netting Meghalaya’s only goal. However, Meghalaya quickly recovered from that setback to beat Kerala 5-0, this time with Johnborlang scoring a hat-trick and Klingson a brace.
Meghalaya thus qualified for the semifinals where they were 5-0 winners once again, this time against UP. Here Klingson registered three goals and Johnborlang two.
Meanwhile, Sankidaroi Sajem, a certified blind football referee, was also one of the match officials during this championship.
In blind football, a five-a-side game, all players except the goalkeeper are blindfolded and are assisted by a coach and a goal guide. The players are guided by the sound of the ball, which contains bells. The goalkeeper, goal guide (who stays behind the opposite goal) and the coach (who runs along the side of the pitch) are the three sighted assistants who call out and direct the players to move with the ball and to shoot.
Blind football is a Paralympic sport and the Indian Blind Football Federation (IBFF) is affiliated to the Paralympic Committee of India and the International Blind Sports Federation, New Delhi. The IBFF has been developing blind football players at the grassroots through awareness camps around the country since 2013.
(Indian Blind Football Federation photo of Klingson Marak (orange/white) in action against Uttar Pradesh in the semifinals)
