Paralympics GB's blind football captain aiming for gold

David Clarke plays blind football. Credit: Press Association

The London 2012 Paralympics Games is due to start next Wednesday August 29 and so far a record breaking 2.2 million tickets have been sold. This year 4,200 athletes from 174 countries are competing in twenty sports.

All this week ITV News will be profiling some of the key sports to watch, starting with blind football.

Captain David Clarke has scored more than a hundred international goals for the team, and is hoping Great Britain can win a medal this year. Currently ranked fifth in the world, the team have won silver five times at the European Championships.

The 41-year-old was part of the first British team to ever compete at a paralympics games in Beijing in 2008. He was due to retire afterwards but could not resist the chance to fulfil his dream of playing for his country, at home. Lewis Vaughan-Jones went to meet him:

The rules of blind football are as follows:

  • The game is played on a solid surface

  • There are five members in each team

  • Outfield players must wear eye-patches and blindfolds

  • The goal keeper is sighted, but cannot leave the area

  • There are no off-side rules

  • The football contains ball bearings so that it makes a noise when it moves

As the most experienced player on the England team, last year he showed David Beckham how to bend it with a blindfold on. Beckham said the biggest difference for him, when he played as part of Sainbury's 1 million kids challenge, was the hushed silence.

Great Britain will take on Spain at 15.30pm on August 31. For the full listings go to the Paralympics Games website.

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