Homeless World Cup – fighting homelessness with soccer

The annual Homeless World Cup aims to change perceptions and attitudes towards people affected by homelessness. In 2023, the international tournament took place in Sacramento. Find out more about the global network here.

The Homeless World Cup is an international street football tournament that is a focal point for many charities and their year-round activities. The organization behind the Homeless World Cup also supports the day-to-day work of charities and promotes international links, skills sharing and the development of charities themselves. “Homelessness can be incredibly isolating and leave people feeling excluded from society and alone,” says the organization. Joining a soccer team can be a small but very important step in helping individuals become part of a community.

The Homeless World Cup is an annual soccer tournament that takes place once a year. Teams of homeless people from different countries can take part. The Homeless World Cup Foundation, a social organization, is committed to ending homelessness through the sport of soccer. The first tournament took place in 2003. Since 2008 there has also been a women’s competition, and since 2010 men’s and women’s teams have competed in all tournaments.

Mel Young and Harald Schmied founded the Homeless World Cup organization in 2001 with the aim of working towards a global solution to homelessness. The first of the annual tournaments took place in Graz, Austria, in 2003. Other venues have included Gothenburg, Edinburgh, Copenhagen, Cape Town, Melbourne, Milan, Rio de Janeiro, Paris, Mexico City, Poznan, Santiago, Amsterdam, Glasgow, Oslo, Mexico City and Cardiff. The headquarters of the Homeless World Cup is located in Edinburgh, Scotland.

To be eligible to participate in the Homeless World Cup, players must be at least 16 years old and must not have participated in previous tournaments. They must have been homeless at some point after the previous year’s tournament, according to their country’s definition of homelessness. Alternatively, they can participate if they earn their main income as a street vendor, are an asylum seeker or are currently in drug or alcohol treatment and have been homeless in the last two years.

A maximum of four players per team are allowed on the pitch. There are three outfield players and a goalkeeper in each team. There are four substitutes available. Each game lasts 14 minutes and is played in two halves of seven minutes each.

In July 2023, the 18th edition of the Homeless World Cup took place at Sacramento State University’s Hornet Stadium. It was the first time the tournament had been held in the USA. 400 players from 40 different countries traveled to the Californian capital to take part in the week-long soccer tournament. It was the first time the Homeless World Cup had been held since the pandemic.

A total of seven trophies were up for grabs at the tournament, four for the men and three for the women. The main prizes are the Men’s Homeless World Cup and the Women’s Homeless World Cup. In the last seven years, the Mexican women have won the latter title. In 2023, they faced Chile in the final, having reached the semi-finals at the last World Cup in Cardiff. However, Chile could not prevent the Mexicans from winning their eighth title at the Homeless World Cup. In the men’s competition, there was a parallel to the women’s final as Mexico once again took on Chile. Here, however, Chile won and snatched the trophy from the Mexicans. The Cup in Sacramento marked the 20th anniversary of the tournament.

An estimated 100 million people worldwide are affected by homelessness. And up to one billion people do not have adequate housing. Homeless people are often affected by social exclusion and stigmatization, economic hardship and poverty, as well as physical and mental health problems. The aim of the Homeless World Cup is to help end this crisis and fulfill the basic human right to a home for all.

As part of its advocacy work, the organization compiles global homelessness statistics and information on member countries. It points out that homelessness can take different forms and has different causes, often linked to poverty. Groups particularly at risk of homelessness include people on low incomes, minorities, people with HIV/AIDS or disabilities, people fleeing war and natural disasters, asylum seekers, people recovering from addiction, trauma or abuse, and people who have spent time in state-sponsored institutions.

The Homeless World Cup network also focuses on the cities where homelessness is often most prevalent. With the “Cities Ending Homelessness” project, the organization aims to build a global network of cities committed to eliminating homelessness. The idea is to share best practices and experiences, pool the resources of 500 cities and connect them with social innovators and researchers to develop creative solutions together.

Read more about the impact of street soccer in urban planning here.