The Committee revealed the equipment they provided to countries as a result of their partnership with European football's governing body, UEFA.

They stated that 202 balls, 211 sets of cloth eyeshades and 39 sets of official black-out eyeshades had been sent to 19 countries between July 2017 and June 2018.

In total 19 countries received balls as part of the initiative, with 16 nations provided with the cloth eyeshades.

Six countries were given official eyeshades.

Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Switzerland were four new countries to benefit from the IBSA Blind Football Development Project Europe.

IBSA have claimed that since their project began with UEFA in 2012, a total of 1,375 balls, 1,119 eyeshades and 127 sets of black-out goggles have been distributed to blind football development programmes in 43 European countries.

"We estimate that blind football is now played in almost 40 European countries in some way - this ranges from local, grassroots programmes to full-blown national teams in around 20 countries," a project spokesman said.

"UEFA's strong commitment to blind football has been instrumental in reaching these figures, a 50 per cent increase in participating countries since 2012.

"Being able to donate such huge amounts of equipment has been vital because it is expensive and can hinder development.

"Now our focus is on expanding blind football to even more European countries, on grassroots programmes, and on encouraging young visually impaired people and women with a visual impairment to take up this beautiful game.

"The growth of blind football in Europe shows how much can be done with relatively small sums of financial support, and we need to show the European project to other regional football organisations and FIFA to replicate it in other parts of the world. 

"If they come on board then for blind football worldwide the sky's the limit."

The IBSA stated that UEFA announced last year that they would continue to support the project through until 2021.

Donations focus on new and emerging countries, with targets to help boost grassroots programmes, youth development and women's involvement in blind football.

National federations, blind sports clubs, schools for the blind or individuals in Europe wishing to introduce or further develop blind football are being invited to apply to IBSA for support.