Homeless World Cup
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The Homeless World Cup is a social organization with the goal of ending homelessness through the sport of football. The organization hopes that engaging homeless people in football will encourage them to change their own lives and develop solutions to worldwide homelessness. The organization puts together an annual football tournament where teams of homeless people from each country compete.
The tenth edition of the Homeless World Cup annual football tournament will take place in Mexico City in October 2012.
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[edit] History
The Homeless World Cup organization was founded in 2001 by Mel Young and Harald Schmied while searching for an international language to unite homeless people around the world. They decided that football could act as this common ground.
The first annual football tournament for homeless people took place in 2003 in Graz, Austria. Host cities since then have included Gothenburg, Edinburgh, Copenhagen, Cape Town, Melbourne, Milan, Rio de Janeiro and Paris. Mexico City will host the 2012 edition.
Along with the annual event, the Homeless World Cup is establishing itself as a social enterprise. The organization reports that over 70% of players engaged in the event changed their lives by beating addictions, moving into jobs, homes, training, education and repairing relationships. Some participants have also become social entrepreneurs, coaches and players.
To date, the Homeless World Cup has touched the lives of over 200,000 homeless people and created three legacy enterprises, operating in the sports equipment and recycling sectors.
[edit] The Cause
There are one billion homeless people in our world today. This is a global issue that affects every nation.
Homelessness can force people into isolation, which affects their ability to share, communicate their thoughts and work with others. Day-to-day survival needs take priority over longer term planning - often resulting in a chaotic lifestyle.
When a homeless person gets involved in football they communicate and build relationships with others; they become teammates, learning to trust and share; they have a responsibility to attend training sessions and games, to be on time and prepared to participate. They feel part of something.
These skills and attributes are all transferable to daily life and therefore help a homeless person see that they can change their lives.
[edit] The Founder
Mel Young, 57, is recognised as one of the world's leading social entrepreneurs by the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship.
Alongside with Austrian born Harald Schmied, they attempted to invent an international language to enable homeless people to communicate with each other around the world so the Homeless World Cup was born in 2001.
In 1993 Mel co-founded The Big Issue in Scotland, a weekly magazine sold by homeless people in the streets of Scotland now with a circulation of 40,000. With the success of The Big Issue in Scotland, he co-founded the International Network of Street Papers, a global network of over eighty street papers sold in every continent, of which he is Honorary President.
The combined annual circulation of these papers is over 30 million helping 100,000 homeless or long-term unemployed people throughout the world every year.
In June 2002, recognising the potential of Fairtrade as a successful tool to alleviate poverty, Mel founded New Consumer Magazine, the UK’s leading ethical lifestyle magazine, enabling consumers to use their purchasing power to change the world.
Mel is the author of GOAL: The story of the Homeless World Cup. He has received honorary degrees from Queen Margaret's University; Herriott Watt University, Edinburgh and Glasgow Caledonian University. He lives in Edinburgh, Scotland and is a lifelong supporter of Hibernian FC.
[edit] National Partners
The Homeless World Cup operates through a network of 70+ National Partners around the world, supporting football programs and social enterprise development.
The Homeless World Cup National Partners provide, or provide access to, the professional services needed - educational, employment, health or legal advice. National Partners also run tournaments and trials to select the 8 players who make the journey to the Homeless World Cup annual tournament each year - and support them in making the most of this experience on their return afterwards: moving on in their lives and becoming the models and ambassadors for other homeless people in their countries.
[edit] List of National Partners
Afghanistan - Argentina - Australia - Austria - Belgium - Bosnia and Herzegovina - Brazil - Bulgaria - Cambodia - Cameroon - Canada - Chile - Colombia - Costa Rica - Croatia - Czech Republic - Denmark - England - Finland - France - Germany - Ghana - Greece - Haiti - Hong Kong - Hungary - India - Indonesia - Ireland - Italy - Ivory Coast - Japan - Kazakhstan - Kenya - Kyrgyzstan - Liberia - Lithuania - Luxembourg - Malawi - Mexico - Moldova - Namibia - Netherlands - New Zealand - Nigeria - Norway - Palestine - Paraguay - Philippines - Poland - Portugal - Romania - Russia - Rwanda - Scotland - Serbia - Singapore - Slovakia - Slovenia - South Africa - South Korea - Spain - Sweden - Switzerland - Timor-Leste - Uganda - Ukraine - USA - Wales - Zambia - Zimbabwe
[edit] Annual Tournament
The Homeless World Cup runs an annual international football tournament to celebrate the work of its network of National Partners and to unite in ending homelessness.
The event is the pinnacle of all that goes on during each year as the Homeless World Cup National Partners come together to celebrate their work and place homeless people at the very centre of the solution.
Each annual tournament is held in the centre of a major international city and we use the event to show the public, politicians and people in general a very different view of homeless people.
The Homeless World Cup demonstrate very clearly the impact that has been made through using football as a tool out of homelessness: 70% of spectators changes their views on homeless people and homelessness.
The annual Homeless World Cup tournament enters its 10th anniversary in 2012 when it will be hosted by Mexico City.
[edit] Past & Future tournaments
- Graz 2003 Homeless World Cup, Austria
- Gothenburg 2004 Homeless World Cup, Sweden
- Edinburgh 2005 Homeless World Cup, Scotland
- Cape Town 2006 Homeless World Cup, South Africa
- Copenhagen 2007 Homeless World Cup, Denmark
- Melbourne 2008 Homeless World Cup, Australia
- Milan 2009 Homeless World Cup, Italy
- Rio de Janeiro 2010 Homeless World Cup, Brazil
- Paris 2011 Homeless World Cup, France
- Mexico City 2012 Homeless World Cup, Mexico
[edit] Rules
[edit] Player eligibility
Players must:
- Be male or female and at least 16 years old at the time of the tournament
- Have not taken part in previous Homeless World Cup tournaments
- Have been homeless at some point after the previous year's tournament in accordance with the national definition of homelessness
- Make their main living income as a streetpaper vendor
- Be asylum seekers currently without positive asylum status or who were previously asylum seekers but obtained residency status a year before the event
- Currently be in drug or alcohol rehabilitation and also have been homeless at some point in the past two years
[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] Tournament details
- The winning team gets 3 points. The losing team gets zero points. If a match ends in a draw, it is decided by sudden-death penalty shootout and 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] Rankings
| Nation | +/- | Tournaments | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brazil | +1 | 8 | 3 | 1 | 3 |
| Mexico | +4 | 6 | 2 | 3 | 7 |
| Scotland | +6 | 9 | 1 | 14 | 12 |
| Ukraine | -1 | 8 | 8 | 9 | 1 |
| Chile | +5 | 5 | 5 | 2 | 9 |
| Russia | -1 | 9 | 9 | 7 | 15 |
| Ireland | = | 9 | 11 | 6 | 5 |
| Portugal | -7 | 8 | 14 | 4 | 2 |
| Poland | -5 | 9 | 10 | 13 | 8 |
| Kenya | +4 | 5 | 4 | 5 | = |
The Homeless World Cup provides an up-to-date list of rankings on their official website.
[edit] Media
The Homeless World Cup has established a global brand identity and told the story through all media. The outcomes and return on the investment has been significant and inspired change across the world.
Communications and PR offer a powerful opportunity to raise awareness and change hearts and minds globally to end homelessness. The Homeless World Cup works to engage and mobilise the audiences to take action and to change attitudes of governments, public, key influencers toward creating better solutions to homelessness around the world.
The Homeless World Cup attract significant media attention at national level highlighting grass roots work and internationally before during and after the annual tournament.
[edit] Paris 2011 Homeless World Cup figures
In Paris 450 journalists attended the event generating great positive coverage. Locally on AFP, Le Monde, Le Figaro, Canal+, TF1, France 3 talked about the event; Internationally, it appears in The New York Times and Associated Press (US), La Gazzeta dello Sport (IT), Australia News (AUS), China Post (China), Mundo Deportivo and Marca (SP), BBC, Reuters and the Independent (UK)...
Supporting Media Partners at the event were CNN and Eurosport, both providing support and coverage. CNN International lent extensive global airtime to the Paris 2011 Homeless World Cup 60 second promo granting over $3 million worth of exposure.
The website www.homelessworldcup.org recorded the best tournament viewing figures since 2008 with 15,200 daily visits on the third day of the tournament (23rd August 2011).
Through the Homeless World Cup Social Medial Channels: Facebook recorded a 28% increase in fans during the tournament week as the number of Twitter followers increased by 23%, an increase of 794.
The Paris tournament saw the introduction of Web TV. All 392 matches played at the tournament were filmed and made free-to-view on the Homeless World Cup website. From 21st August to 12th September, more than 63,000 people watched games online, 24,000 of them unique visitors.
[edit] Documentaries
Several TV documentaries have been made tracking the participation of teams from homelessness, joining our football programme and on to participating at the annual event.
Hors-Jeu: Carton rouge contre l’exclusion. Canal+ broadcasted this 90 minute documentary based on the Paris 2011 Homeless World Cup and the year-round work of the Homeless World Cup and five National Partners: Japan, Argentina, Palestine, France and Kenya. It was aired in France on the 9th of October 2011. Directed by Jérôme Mignard and Thomas Risch.
Kicking It. The 2006 Homeless World Cup was the subject of a documentary entitled Kicking It.[1][2] 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] Celebrities and Supporters
Desmond Tutu, speaking at Cape Town 2006: "All over the world, I want to say, we've got to end homelessness. Everybody should have a home. It's a right, not a privilege. People treat the homeless as if they're sub-human. In order to overcome this discrimination, we have to unite against homelessness as we did when we fought apartheid."
Eric Cantona, Ambassador, Homeless World Cup: "Everybody needs to wake up in the morning with a goal. That is the main thing. The Homeless World Cup brings this opportunity, to go training, to change your life."
Lewis Hamilton, Formula One World Champion 2008: "Meeting the players has been a great experience and it's inspiring to see how the power of sport can change people's lives."
Michel Platini, President, UEFA: "UEFA have partnered the Homeless World Cup since its first annual tournament in 2003. We share its vision of helping homeless people through football. UEFA not only cares about football, UEFA cares about ending homelessness."
Hannah Jones, VP, Nike for sustainable business and innovation: "Nike believe in the power of sport to change people's lives. The Homeless World Cup delivers this and that is why we have benn partners with them since 2003.
[edit] References
- ^ "Kicking It" documentary official website
- ^ Palmer, Nancy Doyle (2008-06-01). "Spotlight: Susan Koch". Washingtonian. http://www.washingtonian.com/articles/people/8004.html. Retrieved 2009-02-27.
[edit] External links
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