Using Football to Change Lives: The Homeless World Cup
Football is the world’s most popular sport; it has universal appeal and is almost ubiquitous everywhere one looks. It is played on dirt fields in Africa, to sprawling modern stadiums in Europe. The sport has the ability to bring people together and change lives.
That testament was put to the test when two philanthropic individuals got together to try to use football to defeat homelessness. The result of their brainwave was the very popular and noble Homeless World Cup. It is proof that football can be used to alter
the negative paths that people find themselves on. It looks likely to help to rid the world of homelessness for good.
The idea was thought up by two individuals who are already very prominent in the fight against homelessness. Mel Young, who is the co-founder of The Big Issue, a street newspaper leading the fight against homelessness in the UK, teamed up with Harald Schmied
who is the editor of the Austrian street newspaper called Megaphon, to try and help homeless people help themselves. The idea they came up with was a unique format football tournament that would be played only by homeless people from all around the world called
the Homeless World Cup. The idea came to the two men from conversations they had at the end of the 2001 International Network of Street Papers that took place in South Africa.
Similar to the concept behind street papers, which sees homeless people selling newspapers on street corners to earn a living and change their lives, the Homeless World Cup was envisioned on the same parameters. The idea was simple, the founders thought
that if homeless people, who usually find themselves in a circle of misery, could break the cycle by engaging in a tournament that would help them forget their troubles and concentrate on a sport, they might be able to change their lives. Since the first year
of it taking place, the tournament has benefitted a huge number of people.
The first tournament that took place was in 2003 in Graz, Austria. That first Cup had such a visible impact on the players that the tournament became an annual event. Out of the initial 141 players who took part in the inaugural event 31 had landed full
time employment a year later. That was an unprecedented success in the fight against homelessness and the event became very popular.
The format of the tournament is extremely simple; anyone who is male or female and 16 years and older can be part of a team. The players have to have been homeless at some point after the last year’s tournament or been making their main income as a street
paper vendor or they can also be asylum seekers in a country. Each team is made up of 4 players on a court at a time; three players and a goalkeeper with four substitutes. Each game is 14 minutes long and the field is much smaller than a regular football field,
it is almost the size of a basketball court. Anyone can take part in the tournament regardless of ability.
The tournament has been a resounding success over the years and as an example to this fact; after the 2005 World Cup, 77% of the players had changed their lives permanently as a result of playing in it. They had secured jobs, started education and training
programmes, dropped their addiction to drugs and alcohol and even re-established relationships with their families. It was a success that the founders had not even predicted would take place before they set out in their venture.
The reach of the event is not only limited to the players, but the event tries to change perceptions of the media, governments and ordinary people about the plight of the homeless around the world. With over 1 billion people without homes all over the planet,
the tournament is trying to reverse the trend in poverty and deprivation. The tournament has also spawned grassroots football training programmes in 70 countries around the world that engage almost 30,000 people without homes. Even scouts from large football
clubs are keeping an eye out for talented players taking part in the tournament every year.
These types of projects show us that football and sports in general can be used as a massive force for good in the world and can really help to change people’s lives for the better. With the tournament growing every year and more people becoming interested
in it, it will help to alter the destinies of many more people in the next few years.
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