Homeless World Cup

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Homeless World Cup in Melbourne, Australia

The Homeless World Cup is an international football tournament, where teams made up entirely of people who are homeless compete. The event has been held annually since 2003. The latest Homeless World Cup was held in Milan, Italy in September 2009.

Contents

[edit] Origin

Scoring a goal at Homeless World Cup 2007 in Copenhagen, Denmark

It was at the end of the 2001 International Network of Street Papers Conference in Cape Town, South Africa that Mel Young, co-founder of The Big Issue Scotland, and Harald Schmied, editor of Megaphon, a street paper in Austria, came up with the idea for the Homeless World Cup. Whilst searching for an international language to unite homeless people around the world, they realised one existed. Mel Young, and Harald Schmied decided to make it happen and 18 months later the first tournament took place in Graz, Austria. It was such a success, with a profound and visible impact on the players, never seen before, that they decided to do more.

[edit] History

[edit] 2003 Homeless World Cup

The first Homeless World Cup was held in Graz, Austria

  1.  Austria
  2.  England
  3.  Netherlands
  4.  Brazil
  • Fair Play Award:  Switzerland
  • Golden Shoe Award for best goalscorer: Slaturu Birinelli ( Italy, 37 goals)

As a testament to its success, 31 of the 141 players from the 2003 tournament held regular jobs a year later.[1]

[edit] 2004 Homeless World Cup

The 2004 Homeless World Cup took place in Gothenburg, Sweden from 25 July to 1 August. The list of participants increased from 18 teams in 2003 to 29 teams in 2004. Italy beat defending champions Austria in the final, 4-0.

The top finishers were:

  1.  Italy
  2.  Austria
  3.  Poland
  4.  Scotland
  • Fair Play Award:  Japan
  • Best Goalkeeper Award: Kevin Wilson ( England)
  • Golden Shoe Award for best goalscorer: Adamenko Yevgen ( Ukraine, 53 goals)

[edit] 2005 Homeless World Cup

The 2005 Homeless World Cup took place in Princes Street Gardens in the centre of Edinburgh, Scotland from 20 - 24 July and Italy managed to defend their title. 2005's initial host, New York, had to back out because of issues in obtaining visas for the homeless players. 32 teams and 250 players were due to participate in the event but five African teams were refused entry to the UK, leaving 27 nations to compete.[2]

The top finishers were:

  1.  Italy
  2.  Poland
  3.  Ukraine
  4.  Scotland

One year after the 2005 Homeless World Cup 77% of players have significantly changed their lives forever moving into jobs, education and training, coming off drugs and alcohol, finding homes and renewing relationships with their families.

[edit] 2006 Homeless World Cup

The host city in 2006 was Cape Town, South Africa. From 24-30 September, teams from 48 nations competed for the championship title. 496 players participated, scoring over 1800 goals in more than 300 matches.

The top finishers:

  1.  Russia
  2.  Kazakhstan
  3.  Poland
  4.  Mexico

Several other titles were also awarded:

[edit] Kicking It Documentary

The 2006 Homeless World Cup was the subject of a documentary entitled Kicking It.[3][4] directed by Susan Koch and Jeff Werner focusing on the experiences of seven homeless people at the Homeless World Cup football (soccer) game. Featured in the documentary, narrated by actor Colin Farrell were residents of Afghanistan; Kenya; Dublin, Ireland; Charlotte, North Carolina; Madrid, Spain and St. Petersburg in Russia. The film premiered in January, 2008 at the Sundance Film Festival and is being distributed by Liberation Entertainment, Netflix and ESPN.

[edit] 2007 Homeless World Cup

Homeless World Cup 2007 at The City Hall Square, Copenhagen

The host city in 2007 was Copenhagen, Denmark. From 29 July - 4 August, teams from 48 nations competed for the championship title, with Scotland winning the title.[5]

The top finishers:

  1.  Scotland
  2.  Poland
  3.  Liberia
  4.  Denmark

[edit] 2008 Homeless World Cup

Crowd around the field at Homeless World Cup 2008 in Melbourne, Australia

The 2008 tournament was held in Melbourne, Australia, from 1-7 December, at two parks: Federation Square and Birrarung Marr.[6] It had a new record of participating projects. National Teams from 56 nations gathered in Melbourne. Amongst them, for the first time, eight all-female teams competed in the Homeless Women's World Cup.[7] Afghanistan won the men's title, defeating Russia 5-4 in the final.[8] Zambia won the inaugural Homeless Women's World Cup, defeating Liberia 7-1 in the final.[9]

The top finishers were:

  1.  Afghanistan
  2.  Russia
  3.  Ghana
  4.  Scotland


[edit] 2009 Homeless World Cup

The 2009 tournament was held in Milan, Italy, from 6-13 September, at the Arena Civica, Sempione Park [10], and featured 500 players from 48 nations.

The top finishers were:

  1.  Ukraine
  2.  Portugal
  3.  Brazil
  4.  Nigeria

A series of additional cups were awarded as follows:

[edit] The Tournament

[edit] Player Eligibility

Players at the Homeless World Cup 2007

Players must:

  • Be male or female and at least 16 years old at the time of the tournament
  • Have been homeless at some point after the previous year's World Cup OR
  • Make their main living income as a streetpaper vendor OR
  • Be asylum seekers (who have neither positive asylum status nor working permit)

Anyone can participate regardless of his or her ability.

[edit] Participants

A maximum of 4 players per team on the court:

  • 3 outfield players,
  • 1 goalkeeper,
  • Plus 4 substitution players (rolling substitution allowed)

[edit] Goalkeeper Rules

[edit] Tournament details

  • The winning team gets 3 points. The losing team zero. If a match ends in a draw, it is decided by sudden-death penalty shootup.

In this case the winning team gets three points and the losing team gets one point.

  • Games are 14 minutes long, in two seven-minute halves.
  • The field is 22m (long) x 16m (wide).

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Homeless football cup under way". BBC News Online. 2004-07-26. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3926323.stm. Retrieved 2009-02-27. 
  2. ^ "Kick off for Homeless World Cup". BBC News Online. 2005-07-20. http://news.bbc.co.uk/nolpda/ukfs_news/hi/newsid_4696000/4696999.stm. Retrieved 2009-02-27. 
  3. ^ "Kicking It" documentary official website
  4. ^ Palmer, Nancy Doyle (2008-06-01). "Spotlight: Susan Koch". Washingtonian. http://www.washingtonian.com/articles/people/8004.html. Retrieved 2009-02-27. 
  5. ^ "Scotland win Homeless World Cup". BBC News Online. 2007-08-05. http://news.bbc.co.uk/nolpda/ifs_news/hi/newsid_6931000/6931518.stm. Retrieved 2009-02-27. 
  6. ^ "Melbourne 2008". HomelessWorldCup.org. http://www.homelessworldcup.org/content/melbourne-2008. Retrieved 2009-02-27. 
  7. ^ "Homeless World Cup groups". HomelessWorldCup.org. http://www.homelessworldcup.org/groups. Retrieved 2009-02-27. 
  8. ^ Cooke, Dewi (2008-12-08). "Afghanistan United: homeless soccer stars hold the cup aloft". The Age. http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2008/12/07/1228584656812.html. Retrieved 2009-02-27. 
  9. ^ Crawford, Fiona (2008-12-07). "Zambia takes the crown". HomelessWorldCup.org. http://www3.homelessworldcup.org/zine/news/zambia-takes-the-crown. Retrieved 2009-02-27. 
  10. ^ "Milan 2009". HomelessWorldCup.org. http://www.homelessworldcup.org/content/milano-2009. Retrieved 2009-09-21. 

[edit] External links

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