Identification and prioritization of important attributes for talent identification in blind football

Talent identification programs will pave the way for the participation of people with disabilities in sports and are important for achieving success in the Paralympic Games. The purpose of this study was to identify and rank the important attributes for talent identification in Blind Football. Methods: The expert panel including blind football coaches and talent scouts, blind football players, and Experts, researchers, and lecturers in the field of sports for visually impaired people, participated in a 3-round e-Delphi study to reach consensus on the important attributes for talent identification in blind football. Then the list of agreed-on attributes was subjected to an analytical hierarchy process. In this stage, the expert panel, consisted of blind football coaches and talent scouts, ranked the agreed-on attributes according to their importance. The Expert Choice 11 software was used for analyzing the data collected in this stage. Results: The final list of 36 attributes, categorized in 6 groups and ranked by importance, was made. Tactical skills (0.254) ranked as the most important factor for talent identification in blind football, followed respectively by technical skills (0.207), physiological/ physical fitness factors (0.189), anthropometrical factors (0.170), psychosocial attributes (0.117), and disability-related factors (0.063. Conclusion: Talent identification in blind football is a multifaceted process and blind football players are required to be good at all of these agreed-on attributes to be successful in this this Paralympic sport.