The Homeless World Cup 2009 Kicks Off In Milan

Preparations are in full swing for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, but so too are preparations for another World Cup, due to start in just three days.

Now in its seventh year, the Homeless World Cup is an annual football event, which uses sport to create social change by offering homeless and marginalized people an opportunity to participate in a team sport, build their confidence, improve their health, and change their lives.

And with over 70 per cent of participants going on to improve their lives, through finding stable shelter or employment, coming off drugs, or reuniting with families, the Homeless World Cup is successfully addressing what had been considered an almost unsolvable, multifaceted problem.

Like all the best ideas, it was devised over beers, when The Big Issue Scotland founder Mel Young and Megaphon street paper editor Harald Schmied were at a conference about homelessness and realised that there weren’t actually any homeless people in attendance.

They devised a conference where homeless and marginalized people could represent themselves: the Homeless World Cup.

The 2009 Homeless World Cup will include over 500 players hailing from 48 nations who will compete in a week-long street soccer event in Milan.

The matches comprise of two seven-minute halves with four players per team, including a goalkeeper, on court at any given time.

In contrast to football’s offside rule, the Homeless World Cup has an onside rule: one player must be in their opposition half at all times, ensuring plenty of fast, attacking football and goals.

There’s also a team of reserve players from the host country—in this case Milan—which can be called on to play if team members from another country are unwell, injured, or unable to play.

2008 saw underdog Afghanistan defeat historic enemies Russia in the grand final to win the Homeless World Cup, while 2007 champions Scotland finished fourth.

All three are likely to be fierce competitors this year.

2009 is also likely to see the Italians, whose national team are the reigning World Cup champions, rise to the occasion and try to make it a World Cup double.

The HWC runs from 6-13 September inclusive.