Sustainability

Football for all the senses

On its way to making football truly global, FIFA is determined to leave no one behind, and that includes those fans who are blind or partially sighted football. Since 2014, an audio-descriptive programme helps these people to experience the games to the fullest.

Going to a stadium is the ultimate experience for a football fan: the chants, the colours, the sounds… All of this comes together to create a unique, vibrant and spectacular atmosphere, but not everyone can enjoy it in the same way. This is the case of the blind or partially sighted fans, a group of people that historically has not been considered by the different organizations in the football industry.

Ensuring that FIFA World Cup is inclusive for all is one of the FIFA’s priorities. In the last years, all World Cup Stadiums are offering more accessibility services, allowing disabled fans and fans with limited mobility to enjoy a barrier-free environment.

But for the 2014 World Cup, FIFA decided that it was time for blind and partially sighted fans to be able to fully enjoy the greatest sporting event in the world and did so by creating a pioneering program that was based on creating an inclusive experience thanks to the use of audio-descriptive commentary.

A new way to enjoy football

With the collaboration of the Centre for Access to Football in Europe (CAFE) and the local NGO Urece, the project began with the training of those people who would be in charge of narrating the games to blind or partially sighted fans. And it is that the experience goes much further than commenting on the plays that occur on the pitch, but helping the person to feel the experience in a deeper way.

Certain aspects that the rest of the fans can take for granted, cannot be enjoyed by people with visual disabilities. In addition to aspects of the game and the atmosphere of the stadium, these comments explain details about body language, facial expression, scenery, team movements, kit description or colours. Everything that can help you feel what happens in a World Cup match. And that is a lot to say.

In this way, blind or partially sighted fans can enjoy everything that happens around them in a more comprehensive way, although it is not an easy task for commentators to be able to capture, process and communicate a whole torrent of details and information in the most efficient way. For that reason, the training of these professionals was one of the priorities for FIFA.

Learning to see for someone else

Basically, the commenters should be the eyes of the blind or partially sighted football fans. A mission of great complexity and for which FIFA, together with CAFE, designed a pioneering training program to be able to carry out their work in the most effective way possible.

The sixteen commentators, who were selected from Media students at Brazilian universities, had to undergo 12 weeks of training, plus attend a series of events that would serve as practice for the World Cup. The goal was to be able to provide commentary in the local language in 26 of the 64 matches of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

To all this we must add the technological section. The system is based on using a series of transmitters, from where the commentators send the signal to all the people who have a radio receiver, making the information arrive instantly and allowing the experience to be live.

To facilitate access to this new service, FIFA did not hesitate to use all its communication channels, in addition to distributing a series of tickets to local NGOs, so that as many people as possible could benefit from this new service. After the event, FIFA donated the broadcast equipment to Urece so that it could continue to be used in Brazilian stadiums.

A resounding success exported to other FIFA events

The first project of descriptive audio comments was very positively received by users. These results were the confirmation that the system represents an enormous improvement in the experience of blind or partially sighted fans in football stadiums.

So much so that, in the next edition of the World Cup held in France in 2018, all stadiums had this service in the local language. Also, in two stadiums, Luzhniki Stadium and Saint Petersburg Stadium, audio commentary was offered in English. In each of the World Cup matches there were 200 sets of headphones available. Likewise, the 2019 Women's World Cup held in France had this technology in four of its stadiums. In both cases, FIFA donated the equipment so that the service can continue to be offered in those venues and help blind or partially sighted people to enjoy football like other fans.

With this project, FIFA has shown its commitment to making football a truly global sport. Not only at the geographic or socio-economic level, but also at the level of the senses. Because each of us feels football in a different way and we all have the right to enjoy one of the great passions of humanity.