French Team to Honour Louis Braille

May 28th, 2009 | by: Daryl |

It’s been 200 years since the birth of Frenchman Louis Braille, inventor of the Braille system of raised dots that allows blind people to read. Next month the French national team will celebrate the bicentennial of his birth in style.

For the friendly against Nigeria in St Etienne on June 2nd, all the player names on French shirts will be printed in Braille. Not sure what the ref will do if he has to book a French player (I’m assuming he’ll cheat and look at the numbers) but this is a classy gesture from the French Football Federation. The shirts will later be auctioned, with the money going to the French federation for the blind.

A simple Braille alphabet is below, and I’ll leave you to work out whose shirt Domenech is holding up as an example:

More detailed Braille alphabet here.

[Tip of the hat to Jeremy who sent us this story]

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http://www.worldcupblog.org/world-football/french-team-to-honour-louis-braille.html philip

Pretty cool. I bet a blind person can coach better than Domenech
MattyDub

Henry…
Will he start
Jadczak

Someone blind, deaf and dumb could better manage the French team than Raymond Domenech. He should stop going to gypsy fortune tellers and never come close to a football again.
Mike

the referees honor the blind every day!

(sorry it was too easy)
Theo

Philip abd Jadczak a dead person could coach better than domenechh
Jon

Anne Frank could coach better than domenech
Mike

what does Anne Frank have to do with the blind???
Jon

I meant Helen Keller sorry
alex w

hahaha
http://inter.theoffside.com/ Johonna

So does that mean we get to rub the players’ chests? I mean, I want to be able to read the braille and all.
wob

why don’t they appoint a blind ref…
Lissette Blue

Lol Johonna. I hope the ref is blessed by the Pope if his blind.
lefutur

the FFF should be even more classy and get a real coach for france.