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Football and poverty reduction programme in Canada

© flickr football, CC.By.2.0

Can a ball help homelessness?

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Football, homelessness and social responsibility

There are many worldwide projects that involve football helping others throughout the world. There are many
examples of non-profits and organisations using football to tackle key development priorities such as education,
health, youth exclusion and gender inequality.

What do I need to do?

Add the information below on the Homeless World Cup to what you have already learned from previous
steps on the role of football beyond the football pitch.

Consider your views on how football can make a positive difference – what criteria would you use to
support this assertion?

Homeless World Cup

You have heard from the director and founder of the Homeless World Cup (HWC). The HWC is a football
tournament organised by the HWC organisation, a social organisation that advocates for the end of homelessness
through football.

Champions of the HWC

The champions of the HWC are, in many cases, different countries from those that you might see regularly
winning the men’s or women’s World Cup.
Date Men's winner Women's winner
2003 Austria -
2004 Italy -
2005 Italy -
2006 Russia -
2007 Scotland -
2008 Afghanistan Zambia
2009 Ukraine -
2010 Brazil Brazil
2011 Scotland Kenya
2012 Chile Mexico
2013 Brazil Mexico
2014 Chile Chile
2015 Mexico Mexico
2016 Mexico Mexico
2017 Brazil Mexico

Click here to see the full final standings from the 2016 Homeless World Cup.

The HWC and social responsibility

The key issue here is to think about football and social responsibility. The HWC is one very good example of a
social enterprise project built around the power of football.

Millions of people in Europe are homeless. This issue represents a major challenge to European governments
and NGOs. The average life expectancy of a homeless person is just 42 years. Figures suggest that the number of
homeless people in western Europe is at its highest in 50 years, a level not seen since the end of World War II.

The HWC puts together an annual football tournament where teams of homeless people from each country
compete, thus using football to help people connect with others, gain fitness and confidence and navigate their
way out of poverty. The event helps to raise awareness about the often misunderstood notion of homelessness.

The story of the HWC

The HWC started in 2003 and uses street football as a vehicle to meet social objectives. The use of football as a
social tool is not new; indeed, its broad and varied use has been evident for a number of years, from local
community-based sports development projects to international organisations using it as a vehicle to assist with
international aid and development.

Eighteen countries took part in the inaugural HWC in Graz, Austria where more than 20,000 spectators watched
109 matches. Following on from this success, the co-founder and director, Mel Young, reported that:

Our main objective had been achieved. We had proved that sport could provide the basis for social
integration. There is no doubt in my mind, therefore, that we had to try and expand these initial
successes. It has worked. And people’s lives had changed.

The success of the tournament meant that it was expanded the following year in Gothenburg, where 26 nations
competed, and the growth has continued every year since.
The 2011 tournament in Paris involved 48 nations, with an additional 16 women’s teams competing for the
Women’s HWC. By 2013 this had risen to 50 teams but with only an additional 8 women’s teams.

The expansion of the HWC’s remit from simply a sporting event to what may be better described as a social
enterprise or intervention, can be traced to a 2004 speech made by former US President Bill Clinton in which he
challenged global institutions to create systems which would allow successful small local projects to be
replicated throughout the world. In turn, he challenged local projects to look to the world rather than simply at
what was in front of them.

In GOAL! The Story of the Homeless World Cup, co-founder Mel Young describes how he recognised that if
street football for homeless people was taken to scale in an organised fashion, it could make a major global
impact.

He explained:

We needed to build a very small global infrastructure which allowed individual projects in cities and
countries in the world to grow and expand. So, we would concentrate on marketing the HWC but it
would only be the tip of the iceberg because, underneath the surface, individual projects would be
operating in different cities around the world, all connected through the HWC.

Impact of the HWC

The impact of HWC activity has been reported and the numbers are impressive:

90% of participants surveyed reported a new motivation for life.

77% have gone on to change their circumstances.

45% gained full-time employment.

40% went into full-time education.

56% successfully addressed drug and alcohol issues.

The current HWC

The 13th edition of the Homeless World Cup took place in Amsterdam, Netherlands at the Museumplein from
12 - 19 September 2015. The defending champions were Chile, who won in Santiago in 2014 in both the men’s
and women’s tournament. Chile’s men and women were both toppled by Mexico at the Museumplein.

Player eligibility

Players must meet both of the following criteria:

At least 16 years old at the time of the tournament.

Have not taken part in previous Homeless World Cup tournaments.

Also, players must be at least one of the following:

Have been homeless at some point after the previous year’s tournament in accordance with the national
definition of homelessness.

Make their main living income as a street-paper vendor.

 Be asylum seekers currently without positive asylum status or who were previously asylum seekers but
obtained residency status a year before the event.

Currently be in drug or alcohol rehabilitation and also have been homeless at some point in the past two
years.

Putting together a team

There is a maximum of four players per team on the court:

Three outfield players,

One goalkeeper.

In addition, there can be four substitution players (rolling substitution allowed).

Tournament details

For each match, the winning team gets three points. The losing team gets zero points. If a match ends in a draw,
it is decided by a sudden-death penalty shootout; the winning team gets two points and the losing team one
point.

Games are 14 minutes long, in two seven-minute halves. The field measures 22m long x 16m wide.

The HWC and UEFA

The HWC has been supported by the UEFA-Homeless World Cup partnership, and UEFA featured the event in
the football governing body’s first ever Social Responsibility Report.

The Football Social Responsibility (FSR) unit was formalised as part of the UEFA organisational structure in
2007. Its goal is to expand UEFA’s capacity to use football to contribute to sustainable development in European
society, focusing primarily on children.

The report highlights the HWC’s success in improving the lives of homeless people whilst keeping the issue of
homelessness firmly in the public eye through the tournament.

The HWC has partners in 74 countries.

Over 75,000 people were involved in the international partners’ football programmes in 2013.

54% of the HWC’s international partners have a relationship with their national football association.

64 nations took part in the 2014 HWC in Santiago, Chile from 19 to 26 October.

Over 100,000 were expected to attend the tournament in Plaza de Constitucion to watch the action and see
how a ball has helped change the lives of the players who will be there proudly representing their nations.

500 players participated, including nations such as 2013 men’s and women’s winners, Brazil and Mexico.

Six continents were represented with teams from South Africa, Uganda, The Netherlands, England,
Bulgaria, India, Australia, USA, Canada and the South American hosts, Chile.

500 players from 50 countries attended the event in Oslo 2017.

Football, social responsibility and social entrepreneurship
Social responsibility is an ethical theory that an entity, be it an organisation or individual, has an obligation to
act to benefit society at large. At its heart is the simple idea that people and organisations have a social
responsibility to others.

Social entrepreneurship is distinct from the concept of entrepreneurship itself, yet still shares several
similarities with the classic concept. The difference between ‘entrepreneurship’ and ‘social entrepreneurship’
stems from the purpose of creation. Social entrepreneurs seek to transform societies at large, rather than
transforming their profit margin, like classic entrepreneurs often seek to do.

Football has a social responsibility to the football world but also because of its popularity it can be used as an
effective social tool to help society.

Football is not a solution to many of the world’s social problems and issues, but if used with other agencies and
programmes, it can make a very useful contribution.

It is important that you can match great claims about making a difference with evidence of a sustained
impact over time. The key facts and evidence above help to support the case that the HWC is making a
difference to the lives of some people.

What’s next?

We now move to a second video in which Mel discusses football and its ability to tackle homelessness.

View 3 comments
Mel Young on football tackling homelessness video Mel Young talks about poverty and the Homeless World
Cup video
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