Homeless World Cup

The Homeless World Cup is an international football (soccer) tournament, where teams made up entirely of homeless people compete. The event is held annually and, as of 2008, is in its sixth year.
The Homeless World Cup 2009 will be held in September in Milan, Italy, and the 2010 tournament in South America, host city to be confirmed.

It was at the end of the 2001 International Network of Street Papers Conference in Cape Town that Mel Young, Co-founder 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. They decided to make it happen and 18 months later the first tournament took place in Graz, Austria. It was such a success that they decided to do more.

History

2003 Homeless World Cup

The first Homeless World Cup took place in July 2003 in Austria. 18 countries participated and were completely formed by homeless people or by people making their income on selling streetpapers. There were 109 games played for the tournament, as more than 20,000 spectators watched. The Austrian team was victorious.

Here are the top finishers:

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#As a testament to its success, 31 of the 141 players from the 2003 tournament now hold regular jobs.

2004 Homeless World Cup

The 2004 Homeless World Cup took place in Gothenburg, Sweden July 25th to August 1st. The list of participants increased from 18 teams in 2003 to 29 teams in 2004. Italy beat defending champions Austria 4-0.

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*Fair Play Award: flag|Japan
*Best Goalkeeper Award: Kevin Wilson (flag|England)
*Golden Shoe Award for best goalscorer: Adamenko Yevgen (flag|Ukraine, 53 goals)
**followed by Roberto Rodriguez (flag|Italy, 51 goals)

2005 Homeless World Cup

The 2005 Homeless World Cup took place in Princes Street Gardens in the centre of Edinburgh , Scotland from 20 - 24 July 2005 and Italy managed to defend their title. 2005's initial host, New York, had to back out because of issues in obtaining visas for the homeless players. 32 teams and 250 players participated in the event.

Here are the top finishers:

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*Fair Play Award: flag|USA
*Best New Team: flag|Australia

One year after the 2005 Homeless World Cup 77% of players have significantly changed their lives forever moving into jobs, education and training, coming off drugs and alcohol, finding homes and renewing relationships with their families.

2006 Homeless World Cup

The host city in 2006 was Cape Town, South Africa. From 24-30 September teams from 48 nations competed for the championship title. 496 players participated, scoring over 1800 goals in more than 300 matches.

The top finishers:

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Several other titles were also awarded:

* City of Edinburgh Cup Winners - flag|Ireland; runners up - flag|Finland
* City of Cape Town Cup Winners - flag|Zambia; runners up - flag|Lithuania
* Big Issue Cape Town Cup Winners - flag|Scotland; runners up - flag|Slovakia
* INSP Trophy Winners - flag|Burundi; runners up - flag|Argentina
* Premier's Cup Winners - flag|Kenya; runners up - flag|Ukraine

* Best Fair Play Team - flag|Slovakia
* Best Mixed Team - flag|Paraguay
* Best Female Player - Lindsay Cooper, flag|Scotland
* Best Male Player - Ronald Siame, flag|Zambia
* Best Newcomer - flag|Kazakhstan
* Best Goalkeeper - Elliott Clow, flag|Canada

2007 Homeless World Cup

The host city in 2007 was Copenhagen, Denmark. From 29 July - 4 August, teams from 48 nations competed for the championship title.

The top finishers:

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2008 Homeless World Cup

The 2008 tournament will be held in Melbourne, Australia, December 1st to 7th, at two parks: Federation Square and Birrarung Marr. [ [http://www.homelessworldcup.org/content/melbourne-2008 Melbourne 2008 Homeless World Cup site] ] It will have a new record of participating projects. National Teams from 56 nations will gather in Melbourne, amongst them for the first time 8 all female teams competing in the Women's Cup. [ [http://www.homelessworldcup.org/groups Homeless World Cup groups] ]

Nations: flag|Afghanistan, flag|Argentina, flag|Australia, flag|Austria, flag|Belgium, flag|Brazil, flag|Cambodia, flag|Cameroon, flag|Canada, flag|Chile, flag|Colombia, flag|Croatia, flag|Czech Republic, flag|Dominican Republic, flag|England, flag|Finland, flag|France, flag|Germany, flag|Ghana, flag|Greece, flag|Hong Kong, flag|Hungary, flag|India, flag|Ireland, flag|Italy, flag|Ivory Coast, flag|Kazakhstan, flag|Kenya, flag|Kyrgyzstan, flag|Liberia, flag|Lithuania, flag|Malawi, flag|Mexico, flag|Namibia, flag|Netherlands, flag|New Zealand, flag|Nigeria, flag|Norway, flag|Paraguay, flag|Philippines, flag|Poland, flag|Portugal, flag|Romania, flag|Russia, flag|Scotland, flag|Sierra Leone, flag|Slovenia, flag|South Africa, flag|Sweden, flag|Switzerland, flag|Timor Leste, flag|Uganda, flag|Ukraine, flag|USA, flag|Zambia, flag|Zimbabwe.

The Tournament

Player Eligibility

Players must:

*Be male or female and at least 16 years of age 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. In this case the winning team gets three points and the losing team gets one point.
*Games are 14 minutes long.
*The field is 22m (long) x 16m (wide).

Notes

External links and sources

External links

*Palmer, Nancy Doyle. " [http://www.washingtonian.com/articles/people/8004.html Spotlight: Susan Koch] ", "Washingtonian", June 1 2008.
* [http://www.homelessworldcup.org/ The Homeless World Cup]

ources

*Press Kits [http://www.homelessworldcup.org/content/press]
*How the Homeless World Cup has changed lives [http://www.homelessworldcup.org/zine/news/high-impact-at-copenhagen-2007]