The BVB Blind Football Team

Borussia Dortmund's blind football team has secured its place in the club's history by winning the 2025 German Championship in the Blind Football Bundesliga. This historic achievement is the result of hard work, exceptional teamwork, and relentless passion for the sport.

Close your eyes for a moment and try taking a few steps. You’ll quickly realise how difficult it is to orient yourself without the ability to see. This makes it all the more important to have immense respect for those who play football while blind!

Blind football is fast-paced and thrilling. Sighted spectators are captivated by this unique form of football. They are particularly impressed by the players’ ball control and sense of orientation. The athletic achievements of blind footballers deserve the highest level of respect and recognition.

For many blind and visually impaired individuals, football is their greatest passion. Football brings people together and can facilitate social integration. Recognition from others boosts self-esteem. Since 2008, the Blind Football Bundesliga has been organised by the DFB Sepp Herberger Foundation in collaboration with the German Disabled Sports Association and the German Federation of the Blind and Visually Impaired.

Under the motto "Bringing football into the heart of society," the Blind Football Bundesliga has been setting exemplary standards for disability sports since 2011. Some matchdays are held in central public squares right in the middle of cities.

Blind football has been played in Dortmund since 2006. Inspired by the FIFA World Cup held in Germany that year, more and more blind and severely visually impaired individuals across the country came together to play football. The ISC Viktoria Dortmund-Kirchderne club, founded in 2005, embraced this trend and established a blind football team alongside their primary sport at the time, goalball.

It took another two years before the foundation was laid for the Blind Football Bundesliga. In the league's inaugural season, the team from Kirchderne became runners-up. Even back then, the then-BVB president, Dr. Reinhard Rauball, was introduced to the sport, as he was a guest of honour at the final matchday in Dortmund-Eving and the subsequent awards ceremony.

When the ISC Viktoria Dortmund-Kirchderne board approached him with the idea of integrating blind football under the BVB umbrella, Rauball was immediately receptive. "We didn’t hesitate for a minute and said – of course, we’ll do it," Rauball remarked.