Table of Contents
Livestreams
We will livestream all games from both Venues with English commentatory in Goalball TV Youtube Channel, you will find links to the livestreams here closer to the event.
Hall 1 / Tapiola Sports Hall
Hall 2 / Honkahalli
Commentators
Below you will find introductions of our stream commentators
Rytis Kazlauskas
I am Rytis Kazlauskas, a sports commentator from Lithuania. Since 2012, I have been covering various sporting events, with a primary focus on Lithuania’s national sport – basketball.
Over the years, I have covered more than 20 different sports, including swimming, athletics, football, handball, rowing, and, notably, goalball.
My journey with goalball commentary began in 2014 at an international club event held in Vilnius, Lithuania. In 2015, I was the commentator for the European Goalball Championship, which also took place in Lithuania.
In 2021, I covered the goalball competition at the Tokyo Paralympics, working alongside Klaidas Janeika, the current head coach of the Lithuanian national goalball team. In 2023, I served as the commentator for the International Men’s Goalball Tournament, organized in Vilnius, Lithuania.
Christoph Scholz
My name is Christoph, 39 years old from Berlin, Germany.
In addition to my profession as a teacher, I started doing commentary
and audio description more than eleven years ago.
After experiences in handball and football I am always interested in new
sports – and in 2023 I got the chance to get to know goalball, so during
the last two years I could be part of different tournaments, for example
Nations Cup, Champions League and Grand Prix.
I am very happy to be part of the Clubs World Cup – and really looking
forward for May.
Akseli Makkonen
Akseli Makkonen is a 37-year-old Finnish goalball commentator making his international debut at this tournament. With a Bachelor’s degree in Sport and Leisure Management, he brings a deep understanding of the game both on and off the court. From 2017 to 2024, he competed in the open category with the Finnish club Aisti Open and gained international playing experience at the Malmö Open in 2020. In 2023, he also coached at the Super European Women’s Goalball League (SEWGL) tournament. Since the 2022–2023 season, Akseli has worked as a commentator at national tournaments and is now excited to bring his voice to the international stage.
Bas Spaans
As a long time participant in goalball, as player, coach, referee and trainer I have
done commentating in Belgium during the SEGL Finals last year. It was a good
experience and a steep learning curve. I am looking forward to hosting this great
event and bringing it to people all over the globe. I value the groundbreaking work of
Bill Teale, in the World Championships in Spartanburg, to give live comments for the
first time on the internet for us to be able to follow. Its an honour to tread in those
footsteps and take it one step further.
Co-Commentators
Below you will find introductions of our stream co-commentators
Dzenan Ajdinovic
Introduction: Me a Swedish-born Serbian, grew up in southern Sweden, started goalball at the age of 8 in 2003, in a club called FIFH Malmö, early on I got moved up to the “Elite team”, at the age of 11, I trained with Swedish goalball legends such as Jimmy Björkstrand, Mikael Aspegren and ofcourse Fatmir Seremeti. I made my national team competitive debut at 15 in the Pajulahti Games (2010 I think) where my first ever appearance for the Senior NT was against Finland. For the next 8-9 years I was a constant part of the Swedish National Team training squad, making my appearances in a couple of European Championships, amongst them the 4th place in Pajulahti 2017, where we lost to Belgium in the Bronze Medal Game. When COVID came, so also came my third knee injury in my left knee, and I had to cut my career short definitely around 2023, I have played for FIFH Malmö, Nottinghamshire Sheriffs, Cambridge Dons and GK NAIS during my career most often playing on the center position or left-wing.
My interest in helping out as a commentator came fairly early, I think the first inspiration was way back when, when I could hear Bill Teale from USA commentate the Malmö Lady Intercup, with my vast knowledge of English and also my multi-lingual background as a translator/interpreter where I speak the Balkan languages, Swedish and fairly okay Spanish, through my work I specialize in both grammar and pronounciation. Those two things combined with the about 20 years of experience within goalball makes me a commentator that knows what the audience need, I know the feeling to watch a stream as a Visually Impaired or blind viewer and the commentator speaks of other things than what is going on, my goal as a commentator is to always put the game, and the description of the games in the focus, theres times for analytics and interactions with the audience when the game is stopped. My first ever commentary was on a small project I did on youtube, commentating the SEGL season in 2016 (I think) I also helped to commentate the Finnish League one time. And now I am back in Espoo, to do my best to provide entertaining and as top quality commentatorship as I can. I look forward to some top quality goalball, may the best team win.
Leo Hintsanen
Goalball is very close to my heart and a big part of my life. I currently play for Näpäjä in the Finnish league and the European Champions League and play for the Finnish national team. I have not before commented on games in English but I have done it in Finnish for the women’s Finnish championship tournament.
Susanna Halme
Hello everyone!
I have been playing goalball for over a decade. I represented the Finnish national team in several major Championships between 2015-2020, but currently I’m focusing on my club career. I’ve won multiple Finnish championships and also took home the gold medal in the Women’s Champions League in 2023. In addition to goalball, I’m also a competitive swimmer. I’m actively involved in developing my own club, Old Power.
Beyond sports, I’m passionate about promoting equality in society and working on development cooperation projects.
I’m still quite new to goalball commentary, as I’ve only done it at a national tournament so far, but I enjoy new challenges—and now I have the opportunity to commentate matches in English for the first time. I’m really looking forward to this tournament and hope we’ll have lots of passionate fans tuning into the livestream!
Eemi Utriainen
Relationship with goalball and commentading: I started playing goalball when I was 11 and it has became big part of my life. I have commented in finnish championships many time in past year in finnish but not yet in english
