2025 European Club Goalball Champions League Qualification Stage to be held in the UK following successful local hosting bid
The Cambridgeshire-based Fen Tigers goalball club is delighted to have bid successfully to host the first qualifying round of the EGCA*1 2025 European Club Goalball Champions League (goalball’s equivalent of football’s UEFA Champions League).
From 21st until the 23rd February the tournament is coming to the UK and matches will take place at the Oundle School Sports Centre near Peterborough. It is the first time the Champions League has been held in the UK and the event is being supported by Goalball UK, the sports’ National Governing Body.
Goalball, a game for people with visual impairments, was invented in 1946 by Austrian Hanz Lorenzen and German Sepp Reindle to help with the rehabilitation of blinded war veterans. Since then, it has evolved and made its men’s Paralympic debut in Toronto in 1976, with the women’s event launching at the games in New York in 1984. There are now over 30 goalball Clubs in the UK, covering all regions. March-based Fen Tigers was established in 2016 and became the first British club to participate in the Champions League in the 2022 season. The highly successful and very active club is making history once again by hosting the first-ever EGCA Champions League tournament in the UK.
As part of its quest to be one of the 2025 EGCA Championship hosts, Fen Tigers has enlisted sponsorship support from a diverse range of local organisations including the Neale Wade Academy, whose sports centre provides their usual training venue, Fraser Dawbarns Solicitors, packaging manufacturer Smurfit Westrock and specialist supplier of goalball equipment Goalfix Sports. Further sponsorship has been obtained from Thomas Pocklington Trust, The Province of Cambridgeshire Charity for Care and Relief, 360 Ability Sport and the Civil Service Sports Council.
Emma Evans MBE, the Fen Tigers Coach who led on the hosting bid, says: “We are thrilled to be hosting not only in the UK but locally in 2025. The generous support of our valued sponsors is transforming our dream into a reality, allowing us to create a lasting legacy from the event that will boost goalball participation among blind and visually impaired individuals nationwide.”.
Mark Winder, CEO at Goalball UK says: “Goalball UK are delighted to be working with Fen Tigers to bring the European Club Goalball Champions League to the UK for the very first time. This will showcase our sport, at the very highest club level, and will not only raise awareness of the sport but also the aspirations of people who are blind or partially sighted. People who are blind or partially sighted are less likely to participate in sport than any other disability group. Fen Tigers, as one of our affiliated clubs, are helping to address this.”
Iain Grimes, Managing Partner at Fraser Dawbarns, adds: “When Emma approached us for support, we were very keen to help. It is a major feather in the Fen Tigers’ cap to be bringing a European tournament to the East of England and lovely to have such exceptional sporting talent embedded in our local community.”
