Competition
The Homeless World Cup is a tournament that includes all the nations right through to the finals day. No team is knocked out. Here we explain how that works.
Competition Structure
The Homeless World Cup is a street soccer event, which is fast and entertaining. Each match, officiated by a referee, lasts for 14 minutes, that’s 7 minutes each way with a one minute break for half –time.
The standard of the players and the teams vary greatly. The policy of the Homeless World Cup is to be as inclusive as possible whilst keeping the true magic of competitive sport alive.
Different qualifying or elimination stages are played throughout the week so that everyone ends up playing for a cup no matter what the ability of the team is. The better teams play for the top trophy, next best for the second trophy and so on. All players receive a medal.
COMPETITION
All players at the Homeless World Cup are aiming for glory and the chance to lift the trophy at the end of the tournament. Here's how the tournament works:
PRELIMINARY STAGE
The night before the tournament begins, a draw is held to determine the groupings for the first stage of competition. There are eight groups of six teams that play in the Preliminary stage. Each team plays the other five teams in their group once.
SECONDARY STAGE
At the end of the Preliminary Stage teams are divided into two sections based on their results in the Preliminary round.
The top three teams from each group become section one and the remaining teams in each group become section two.
The teams are then grouped into eight groups of six teams, four groups within each section.
The teams play a further five matches, and it is organised so that they play teams that they did not face in the Preliminary round.
TROPHY STAGE
After the Secondary stage, the teams are split into six groups of eight according to their results. There's a trophy on offer for each group.
THE SIX TROPHIES
Homeless World Cup
A play off among teams ranked 1 - 8 after the Secondary stage.
Dignitary Cup
A play off among teams ranked 9 - 16 after the Secondary stage.
City Cup
A play off among teams ranked 17 - 24 after the Secondary stage.
Host Cup
A play off among teams ranked 25 - 32 after the Secondary stage.
Community Cup
A play off among teams ranked 33 - 40 after the Secondary stage.
INSP Networking Trophy
A play off among teams ranked 41 - 48 after the Secondary stage.
The cup competitions take the standard form of quarter-finals, semi-finals and grand finals.