Australia are stepping up the standard of their visually impaired football teams ©IBSA Football

National camps taking place in Melbourne and Sydney have been used as an indication of the progress being made in improving the standards of visually impaired football in Australia. 

Athletes came together from across the country to participate in the two camps.

They formed the basis for selecting Australian teams in B1 blind and B2/B3 partially sighted events to compete internationally for the first time.

"It's been a long road to get to this point, but we have some really exciting times ahead," said national coordinator, Dave Connolly.

"Our players and coaching staff know they are a long way behind other countries, but they are all looking forward to the challenge.

"The creation of Australia's newest national football teams is pretty amazing, and I am honoured to have played my part in getting all of the players and coaches to this point. 

"Now it's over to them to represent the green and gold with pride and take on the world."

Australian visually impaired football teams pose together following joint training camps ©IBSA
Australian visually impaired football teams pose together following joint training camps ©IBSA

The B1 team, captained by Amir Abdi, will compete in Kochi, India, for matches and joint training sessions from September 17 to 22.

The men's team, skippered by Nick Haydardedeoglu, will compete in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia from September 23 to 28.

Their long term ambition will be the 2021 Vision Impaired Futsal World Championships.