Homeless World Cup

The idea of a Homeless World Cup was born in Cape Town, South Africa, when Mel Young -co-founder of the Big Issue in Scotland- and Harald Schmied -editor of the Austrian street paper Megaphon- were having a drink at a local pub during an International Network of Street Papers conference.

They were discussing about a way of getting homeless people involved in this sort of events. But issues like language differences, and the lack of interest that a series of speeches could arise in the homeless community, played against the idea of inviting them to this conference.

After a couple of beers, Mr. Young and Mr. Schmied came up with the idea of using what they thought was the most universal and appealing language of them all, Football (or Soccer, as it’s known in certain places).

First, they scheduled a match between Scotland and Austria, but soon, the thing escalated and by the end of the evening their decision was to invite everybody and to name the event the Homeless World Cup.

Eighteen months later, in 2003, the first Homeless World Cup was played in Schmied’s hometown, the city of Graz in Austria. The competition was won by the home team, who defeated England in the final.

Since then, the HWC has been held in Gottemburg in 2004 (won by Italy), Edinburgh in 2005 (won by Italy) Cape Town in 2006 (won by Russia), Copenhagen in 2007 (won by Scotland) and now Melbourne in 2008.

The opening match of the 2008 HWC was played between the home team and Austria, with the central-European team defeating Australia 3 goals to 0. Soon after that, the first major clash of the competition took place between the reigning champions Scotland and Afghanistan.

The match ended up with a victory of the Afghans by penalties, after the two, seven-minute, halves finished with a score of 0 to 0.

From then on, the Afghans went on a winning streak that led them to the final against the Russians.

The Afghan team was organised by the Sanayee Development Organization (SDO), an institution that brings education to homeless people in Afghanistan, named after the XXII century poet Hazart Hakeem Sanayee, one of the country's most remarkable scholars.

After the first round -in which the 56 participant nations played each other according to a draft - the teams were divided into six different cups: The Homeless World Cup, the Dignitary Cup, the City Cup, the Host Cup, the Community Cup and the INSP Networking Trophy.

In addition to these cups (which were open to teams of mixed-genre) the Melbourne 2008 Homeless World Cup saw the first edition of the Women’s tournament. In this cup participated 8 different national teams: Cameroon, Colombia, Ivory Coast, Kyrgyzstan, Liberia, Paraguay, Uganda and Zambia.

The INSP Networking Trophy was won by Team Malawi, which is organised by Education Football Malawi, a project managed from Scotland by two members of the Hunter Leadership Program, which provides one-year scholarships to potential future leaders of Scotland.*

The Community Cup was won by Team Rwanda, which is run by Amani Africa, a grassroots organization striving to alleviate homelessness and establish sustainable peace in the post-conflict communities of the great lakes region of Africa.*

The Host Cup was won by Team Mexico, which is organised by Delta, an institution that helps former oil workers in Campeche who have lost their jobs and homes after developing alcohol or drug addictions. *

The City Cup was won by Team Zimbabwe, which is organised by YASD, a non-profit community organization that uses soccer to teach children and youths about HIV/AIDS prevention, self confidence and drug and alcohol abuse.*

The Dignitary Cup was won by Team Ireland, which is organised by Ireland’s Issues Magazine, which continues to expands Ireland’s street soccer program across the country.*

The Women’s Cup was won by Team Zambia, which is organised by the Joy Human Development Centre, where marginalised youth battle homelessness, poverty and enter drug rehabilitation.*

The Russian team, is organised by the St. Petersburg street paper. They were the champions of the 2006 HWC in Cape Town and together with Afghanistan are the only undefeated teams of the tournament.

Final day. Sunday December 7, 2008. The stands of the small stadium, recently built at Federation Square are packed. All over the square, thousands of people stand, watching what’s happening on the pitch.

The ones closer to the pitch lean left and right and stand on tiptoes trying to get a glimpse of the live action, the rest must follow the game on the giant screen that rises behind the stadium.

On the pitch, Afghanistan and Russia are playing the grand final. On the south stand (the one closer to the Yarra River) a group of young, second-generation Afghans is cheering for the country of their ancestors.

Loudly and in clear English, they repeat the letters, A-F-G, A-F-G. This same abbreviation appears on the digital scoreboard that stands next to the pitch, which shows that the Afghans are leading the Russians by 5 goals to 4, with just a few seconds to play.

Last play of the match, the score has remained 5 – 4 for the last three minutes. The Russian player Davtyan clears from his defender, shoots and the Afghan goalkeeper Orfan barely touches the ball, sending it towards the back posts. After this, the final whistle is blown and the Afghans began to celebrate.

It’s time to wrap things up. The 2008 Homeless World Cup is over. The trophies are given to their respective winners in a brief ceremony and then the crowd abandons Federation Square and the teams begin a final celebration prior to their long journeys home.

A study made amongst the players at Copenhagen 2007 showed that:

93% have a new motivation for life

83% have improved social relations

71% have significantly changed their life

29% found employment

38% improved their housing situation

32% went into education*

The 2009 edition of the Homeless World Cup will take place in Milan, Italy.
from the 6th to the 13th of September.

* source: Homeless World Cup official Guide.

(for more information visit: www.homelessworldcup.org)

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This slide-show of the 2008 Homeless World Cup (HWC) was exhibited at the Melbourne Social Forum.

All the audios were recorded during matches and other events organised by the HWC.

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