Homeless World Cup

The Homeless World Cup logo

The Homeless World Cup is a UK based social enterprise which exists to end homelessness.

Since 2003 the annual Homeless World Cup football tournament has taken place across four continents.

The Paris 2011 Homeless World Cup took place at the Champs de Mars, Paris, France from 21-28 August 2011. The team from Scotland were the winners.

History

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.

Tournament

Past tournaments The annual Homeless World Cup tournament has taken place globally since 2003.

• 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 2010 Homeless World Cup, Brazil

Future tournaments

• Paris 2011 Homeless World Cup, France, 21-28 August 2011
• Mexico City 2012 Homeless World Cup, Mexico, TBC
• Poznan 2013 Homeless World Cup, Poland, TBC

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.

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 zero. 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).

Kicking It documentary

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.

External links

• Official website