Football for Social Change
Posted on 30/07/2007
President of the Homeless World Cup Mel Young hosted a conference with several key speakers today to discuss how the Homeless World Cup has and can help address social problems.
Mel himself spoke first about the initial aims of the Homeless World Cup; to use football as a platform to unite people in a common way of thinking and help the individual. He commented that nearly 80% of all previous participants have reported positive changes in their lives since playing in the tournament, a fact that has raised his expectations and ambitions in terms of what the Homeless World Cup can achieve going forward. ”The whole rational is to raise people out of homelessness”, he said, ”and we are using globalisation in a positive way, to create social impact.”
Charlotte Williams, the deputy mayor of last year's hosts Cape Town told how South Africa is using football to unite people of all ages in a common way of thinking. The street soccer leagues that have been created and have flourished since last year are helping to combat problem issues such as alcohol, drugs, and child abuse. Her motto is ”a child in sport is a child out of court”, and the South African team have found that sport can directly provide opportunities to build a life without crime. Sponsers of the team are helping to train players, and in some cases provide jobs back home.
Karina Jørgensen of Denmark's street soccer organisation Ombold spoke of the healthy lifestyle that street soccer promotes, highlighting the benefits of exercise and taking focus away from the damaging effects of alcohol and drugs. For her, sport helps to build not just the physical condition but also social capacity.
Mr. Peter Juul, a representative from the Ministry of Social affairs in Denmark, remarked how the atmosphere around the tournament makes it hard for anyone to be pessimistic about homelessness and events that aim to prevent it. He also called for more females to get involved, as homelessness doesn't just affect males who make up the majority of the players at the tournament.
The last speaker was Mikkel Warming, Mayor of Social services in Copenhagen. His passion when speaking about the initiatives raised by the Homeless World Cup were evidence of how and why the event is being held in Copenhagen this year. He spoke about focusing on homeless people as individuals rather than a faceless group, encouraging others to address problems with homelessness even in rich countries such as Denmark, and using the Homeless World cup as inspiration to come up with new methods to tackle social problems.
As the press conference went on it was clear that everyone involved is passionate about what they are doing. Mel Young had an idea and made it happen, and it has grown to an annual event that now involves 48 countries from around the world. So far the Danish public have filled the stands and cheered on every team to play on the pitches. Whoever wins, everybody wins.
Matthew Simpson
