From 11th to 13th July 2025 goalball teams from Great Britain (Men & Women), Brazil (U23 Men & U23 Women), France (Women), Spain (Men & Women), and Qatar (Men) descended on Surrey Sports Park in Guildford for the inaugural Goalball UK International Trophy!
Day 1
The event got off to an exciting start with 18 goals being scored in the first game, which was between the women's teams from France and Spain, which ended with France emerging as victors with an 11-7 win.
The excitement continued with both the Great Britain Women and Men winning their first games – the women overcame a strong comeback from the Brazilian women in the second half to win 6-4, whilst the men also showed second half dominance to beat Qatar 11-4, after the score was 3-3 at half time.
Away from the action on court, a local primary school with 6 pupils with a visual impairment came along on the Friday to cheer on the GB teams and have a go at goalball themselves. The pupils even got a chance to have a Q&A and photo with the GB Women's team!
Day 2
Saturday saw a tense battle between Brazil and France in the Women's competition; the score was 1-1 at half tametime after an excellent display of defence from both teams. This continued in the second half with only 6 goals being scored throughout the entire game, the final score was 4-2 to Brazil. In the Men's competition, Saturday saw the two semi finals take place. First up was Brazil vs Qatar which finished 12-2 to Brazil, a comfortable win to set themselves up for the gold medal match on Sunday. The second semi-final featured Great Britain and Spain, which featured 20 goals with the final score being 12-8 to Great Britain.
The off-court action continued with a Goalball Academy training camp for their players, giving them a unique opportunity to watch some international goalball and take some of that learning into their own training camp.
Day 3
Excitement was high on Sunday for the home crowd with both GB Women and Men making it through to their respective gold medal matches. But first up was a placing game in the Women's competition to decide who would face Brazil in the bronze medal game – France took on Spain in a closely fought contest with France eventually coming out on top with a 9-6 victory to secure their chance to take on Brazil.
Next up in the Men's competition was the bronze medal game featuring Qatar and Spain. Qatar played valiantly but they could not match the scoring prowess of Spain, with the final result being 14-4 to Spain who secured their bronze medals. Over to the Women's bronze medal game featuring France and Brazil, this was a very close game with both teams showing excellent defensive skill and at half time it was 1-0 to France. The defensive skill continued in the second half, with France eventually securing their bronze medals by beating Brazil by 1 goal, final score 3-2 to France.
Gold medal games
GB Men v Brazil
Now on to the gold medal games, first up GB Men versus Brazil. Brazil had shown strong performances throughout the competition and the final was no exception. The GB Men put up a great fight and played their hearts out, but eventually Brazil finished the game with a 13-3 victory with just 4 seconds left on the game clock.
Gold medal winners Brazil and their coaches
Silver medal winners GB Men and their coaches
GB Women v Canada
The Women’s final was set up as an exciting prospect with GB taking on Canada, when these two teams met earlier in the competition Canada came out on top with a 6-3 victory, could they do it again everyone wondered? Well, the GB Women clearly learned something from their previous encounter with Canada and put on a world-class display of defence. Canada played brilliantly and showed great discipline in defence as well, with just one goal separating them at half time. This defensive display from both teams continued in the second half, with just 2 goals being scored after half time.
The final score was 4-3 to Great Britian, showing real potential and exciting prospects for such a young team!
Gold medal winners GB Women and their coaches
Silver medal winners Team Canada and their coaches
Thank you
We had an amazing time hosting the Goalball UK International Trophy, and we would like to thank everyone involved for making it such an enjoyable and successful event. A huge shout out goes to the staff, officials, and volunteers who worked tirelessly throughout the weekend to ensure the smooth running of the event for all the teams to enjoy, thank you!
A big thank you also goes to our event partners –
UK Sport (via National Lottery) – Funding
Brad Hope from Alan March Sport – Sport Presentation
Surrey Cars – Transport Partner
Surrey Sports Park – Venue Partner
You can have a look at all the results, as well as the top goalscorers and players of the tournament, via the following link https://goalballuk.com/internationaltrophy2025/scheduleandresults/
To relive the action game–by–game, head over to our YouTube channel for all the streams, via the following link https://www.youtube.com/@GoalballUK_NGB/streams
