Homeless World Cup’s James McMeekin, again row left, poses with members of the Korean Homeless World Cup squad, Tottenham Hotspur gamers Future Udogie and Guglielmo Vicario and former skilled footballer Lee Keun-ho, chairman of the native organizing committee, in Seoul, Aug. 1. Courtesy of Daueen Shim
By Jon Dunbar
Seoul is about to affix an unique group of simply 4 cities which have hosted a Summer time Olympics, a FIFA World Cup and a Homeless World Cup.
Hanyang College will host 500 gamers from 64 groups representing 49 nations for the Seoul Homeless World Cup, the primary occasion of its type in Asia, from Sept. 21 to twenty-eight.
The Homeless World Cup is a part of an initiative that advocates for an finish to homelessness by means of sport. The annual event started in 1999, and a girls’s occasion was added in 2009. Since 2010, all tournaments have featured males’s and girls’s competitions. Korea additionally started fielding a workforce in that yr. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, no tournaments had been held from 2020 to 2022.
The gamers within the Homeless World Cup are folks “who’ve skilled homelessness or social exclusion however are attempting to maneuver their lives ahead,” in keeping with organizers. “Placing on their nation’s shirt turns into a springboard to a brand new starting for therefore many.”
Groups are organized by a nationwide associate in every nation, which is usually a grassroots group immediately partaking with the unhoused and marginalized.
“We offer a spotlight for — and a celebration of — their year-round exercise with the Homeless World Cup,” the organizers stated. “We additionally help their day-to-day work by constructing worldwide connections, facilitating talent sharing and serving to our members to develop.”
Every nation fields a squad of eight, with 4 on the sphere at a time. Video games are 14 minutes lengthy and fast-paced, with plenty of targets.
Of the gamers who participate within the Homeless World Cup, 94 p.c report the expertise as having a constructive affect on their lives, in keeping with the organizers, which stated that after the tournaments, “an enormous share of (the gamers) enhance their lives by means of schooling, employment in social enterprises and different companies, substance abuse rehabilitation and supported housing.”
The Homeless World Cup has been the topic of quite a few documentaries, together with “Kicking It” (2008) and “The Stunning Recreation” (2024). It is usually the topic of the Korean sports activities comedy-drama “Dream” (2023), directed by Lee Byeong-heon and starring Park Search engine marketing-joon and Lee Ji-eun, also called IU.
The Homeless World Cup Basis, a social group that’s registered as a charity in Scotland, cited a 2005 international survey by the United Nations, the latest obtainable knowledge, which estimates that there are roughly 100 million unhoused folks worldwide and plenty of as 1.6 billion individuals who lack sufficient housing.
“A world with out Homelessness,” the group says on its web site. “That’s the purpose.”
Go to homelessworldcup.org for extra info.
