Homeless World Cup Kicks Off In Melbourne

The Homeless World Cup commenced Monday in Melbourne, Australia, opening up a week’s worth of street soccer festivities and good deeds. As is the case with street footy, goals were plentiful, with the only game coming under 7 goals the 3-0 victory of Austria over hosts Australia. So maybe that homefield advantage we see so often in regular tournaments don’t extend to the streets.

However, this is one “World Cup” where the sport is secondary and the peripherals are anything but.

The Homeless World Cup is an annual, international football tournament, uniting teams of people who are homeless and excluded to take a once in a lifetime opportunity to represent their country and change their lives forever. It has triggered and supports grass roots football projects in over 60 nations working with over 25,000 homeless and excluded people throughout the year.

The impact is consistently significant year on year with 73% of players changing their lives for the better by coming off drugs and alcohol, moving into jobs, education, homes, training, reuniting with families and even going on to become players and coaches for pro or semi-pro football teams.

Over 500 players are at the tournament, which means if they keep their current rate 365 people (they have men’s & women’s) will somehow better their lives from this tournament alone. In other words, though it’s just seven days, they will somehow improve one person’s life each day of the year. With one billion homeless in the world today, according to the organization, it’s an incredibly small piece of the pie, but a massive step in the right direction. World Cup may be the best tournament in football, but this is undoubtedly the most meaningful.

And you don’t have to be in Melbourne to help. Just click on the banner to find various ways.

Then check out the short documentary made after last year’s tournament in Copenhagen:

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