The Homeless World Cup

This month, the 20th edition of the Homeless World Cup (HWC) will take place in Oslo, Norway. The HWC is an annual competition organised and officiated by the Homeless World Cup Foundation, with the goal being to end homelessness through football.

The foundation was co-founded by Mel Young and the late Herald Schmied in 1999, with the first official event being held in 2003 in Graz, Austria. 

The first tournament was played between 18 representative countries. The idea for the inaugural tournament was originally conceived during an International Network of Street Papers conference, a conference held by the INSP organisation, who work to give homeless people and those experiencing extreme poverty a chance to earn an income and share their stories via newspaper vending. The squads for the inaugural tournament were almost entirely made up of street paper vendors, as the teams were mostly organised by Street Paper programmes overseen by the INSP.

The games for the 2003 tournament were formatted as 4v4 with three outfield players and one goalkeeper. Teams had four substitutes that could be deployed via rolling substitutions. The games were seven minutes a half for a total of fourteen minutes per game. 

144 players participated in the inaugural tournament, with 100 games being played between July 6th to 12th. The tournament was split into two separate tiered trophies. The host nation Austria won the INSP Homeless World Cup Trophy (Tier 1), beating England 2-1 in the final, with Scotland winning the INSP Networking Trophy (Tier 2) after beating Poland by the same scoreline in the final.

(Austria win the inaugural Homeless World Cup. Credit: HWC)

The HWC has taken place annually since the foundation's 2003 tournament, aside from a brief pause from 2020 to 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The tournament now includes a parallel women's competition that was first introduced in 2008 and has been a permanent addition every year since 2010. As the tournament progressed, the HWC introduced set criteria for players in an attempt to involve as many of those in need as possible.

To be considered for upcoming tournaments, players must be at least 16 years old at the time of the event and have not played in any previous HWC tournaments before. Additionally, players must be one of the following: 

Currently be in drug or alcohol rehabilitation in addition to being homeless at some point within the last two years. 

Be an asylum seeker without a positive asylum status or have been no more than a year previously.

Have been officially homeless at some point after the previous year's tournament.

Make their main income via street vending.

Players are selected for each team by national member organisations that arrange football development programs throughout the year for those experiencing homelessness. The criterion for selection is not always the 'best' player, as emphasis is placed upon those who can contribute to a supportive team environment and can use the experience to grow their self-esteem and social skills.

This year's tournament includes 48 nations with over 500 players taking part. The favourites for both the men's and women's tournaments are Mexico, who currently top the HWC Rankings for each and are the current holders of each. 

As well as being the current favourites, the Mexican men's and women's teams are also the record winners of the tournaments, with the sides winning five and nine tournaments respectively.

(Mexico's men's team win the 2024 Homeless World Cup. Credit: HWC)

In 2021, the World Economic Forum reported that over 150 million people were homeless worldwide, and in 2022 UN Habitat reported that 1.6 billion people lacked adequate housing. Statistics such as these highlight the importance of events like the HWC. Since its inaugural tournament, the HWC foundation claim that 77% of the tournament's players say their lives have been significantly changed by the event, and that over 1.3 million lives have been impacted through participation alone. 

Events like these bring hope to those with none themselves, showing that something as simple as football can have a monumentally positive impact on someone's life. As the HWC website states, "Joining a football team can be a small but hugely significant step to feel part of a community". 

The tournament is still ongoing and will conclude on the 30th of August. Tickets can be bought and donations can be made for the current tournament and future tournaments via the HWC website: https://www.homelessworldcup.org/ . Additionally, all games can be streamed for free via FIFA+.