Homeless World Cup

The Homeless World Cup logo

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.

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.

The Cause

There are 100 million 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.

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.

The international headquarters of the Homeless World Cup is located in the South Stand of Hibernian FC's Easter Road stadium.

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.

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

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.

Results

Year	Host		Winners	Score	Runners-up		Third place	Score	Fourth place		Number of teams
2003 Details	Graz, Austria		Austria	2–1	England		Netherlands	11–5	Brazil
2004 Details	Gothenburg, Sweden		Italy	4–0	Austria		Poland	7–4	Scotland
2005 Details	Edinburgh, Scotland		Italy	9–3	Poland		Ukraine	11–5	Scotland
2006 Details	Cape Town, South Africa		Russia	1–0	Kazakhstan		Poland	3–1	Mexico		26
2007 Details	Copenhagen, Denmark		Scotland	9–3	Poland		Liberia	11–5	Denmark
2008 Details	Melbourne, Australia		Afghanistan	5–4	Russia		Ghana	6–4	Scotland
2009 Details	Milan, Italy		Ukraine	5–4	Portugal		Brazil	3–2	Nigeria
2010 Details	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil		Brazil	6–0	Chile		Mexico	4–4 (1–0p)	Portugal
2011 Details	Paris, France		Scotland	4–3	Mexico		Brazil	7–1	Kenya
2012 Details	Mexico City, Mexico		Chile	8–5	Mexico		Brazil	6–2	Indonesia		48
2013 Details	Poznań, Poland

Rules

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

Participants

A maximum of 4 players per team on the court:

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

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).

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.

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.

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 (23 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 21 August to 12 September, more than 63,000 people watched games online, 24,000 of them unique visitors.

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. 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.

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 been partners with them since 2003.

Former Professional Footballers

Quotes by former footballers, in regard to the Homeless World Cup 2012, being hosted in Mexico.

Adolfo Bautista, Trainer, Homeless World Cup 2012: "I'm currently not in a club (free agent), and I would like to use my talent to help those less fortunate than I am. I was recently playing for Queretaro F.C. and I hope what I have learned there, I can use to help these people. The Homeless World Cup 2012 brings a great heartwarming for the players in it, and the staff alike."

Cuauhtemoc Blanco, Player, Dorados de Sinaloa: "It's a great thing for the people. I wasn't as fortunate as a child growing up, and it's a good thing to see opportunities like this for the people without homes."

Hugo Sanchez, Coach, C.F. Pachuca: "I wish the best for them. It brings great publicity to Mexico, and the chance for a better life to the people."

Jorge Campos, Former footballer: "I've been in charity matches before, and it's a great thing for Mexico to be able to host one. We hosted the World Cup twice, and now we get to host the Homeless World Cup."

Jared Borgetti, Former footballer: "It's things like these that bring the world together."

External links

• Official website
• Rankings Homeless World Cup
• The Rules for the annual football tournament