O Canada!
One familiar face from behind the scenes at many Homeless World Cups is in Oslo for his tenth tournament. This time, however, he’s not alone. After years of hard work back in his homeland of Canada, he’ll be leading the Maple Leaf charge as his national team return to the tournament stage following a ten-year absence…and you may just see a tear stain or two marking that red and white jersey…
Hossam in the centre during the Sacramento 2023 Homeless World Cup
Hossam Khedr, former IT and financial supremo and now CEO of the Canadian Street Soccer Association, has been on some journey. Having run the Muslim Youth Soccer League for over twenty years in Ontario - the league was created by a woman who wanted to provide an alternative sport for girls to play in a safe environment - he opened it up to the wider community, serving people from low income families. Joining with his wife, Rabia, an advocate for disability and former human rights commissioner in Ontario, they also created a programme called AccessKix.
“Because of these programmes, I was put in touch with Homeless World Cup, connected with the staff, told them about what I was doing and asked whether I could come along and see what they were doing,” Hossam explains.
“I was invited to Poznan 2013 and, like everyone who experiences Homeless World Cup, I was hooked. I learned a lot, took it back to the programmes in Canada and now volunteering is something I do every year, from the heart, a very fulfilling part of my life.”
After 2015, however, there was a little part of his life that was missing - namely his national side’s participation in the tournament. Team Canada played in Homeless World Cups from 2004 until 2015 when the then organisation changed priorities and stopped coming to the event. Then in Mexico 2018 Hossam and two other supporters from Canada kicked off discussions on how they could return the national side to the tournament.
“I was volunteering for HWC, working in my full-time job, and the four of us, including Ed [Kiwanuka, HWC Referee from Canada] tried to move things forward,” he continues. “We were just running small programmes scattered across the country - a huge country - and we needed to have at least one person committed to the job.”
In 2020, when the pandemic hit, Hossam decided to move from the financial sector into mental health, to expand his knowledge in this area. Then in 2023, ahead of the first tournament post Covid, the subject of Canada returning to the HWC fold was raised again.
“In Sacramento we met with Brianna Waldman [Professor of Sport Management, Camosun College BC], we connected and decided to get things moving,” he adds.
“I started to talk to people around Canada, to see who was running programmes and encouraged the idea of creating a new organisation, having a director of operations in every province - this is when I decided to leave my job, founded the organisation and began to look for board members.”
At the same time - March 2024 - The Beautiful Game movie was released which helped bring more attention to the idea and, with the help of HWC, all enquiries about a Canada team were forwarded to Hossam.
In April 2024 the group committed to running a programme in four provinces then, last June, ran a national tournament which brought players from those provinces together and went on to select players to come to Oslo this year.
“HWC has been very supportive, allowing us to bring a team during our first year of existence,” he says. “It’s a mixed team of two women and six men. We are still a NFP organisation, looking to get charitable status in the next few months, so we can access more government money. Right now we’re dependent on grants coming from private groups or NGOs.”
The organisation has five Board members - the Chair is working as a Trustee/accountant, another is doing marketing and social media and another [Brianna] is doing communications. Daniel [Copto, CEO Street Soccer Mexico] one of the founders of the original Street Soccer Canada, continues on the Board, helping with his expertise in operations. Meanwhile Ed [Kiwanuka] a player from 2011 who went on to train as a referee, works as director of operations in Ontario.
“We’re learning as we go,” Hossam adds, “and are starting our women’s programme in September. We found a couple of shelters in the area west of Toronto who are interested in working with us, involving some women from a background of gender-based violence and human trafficking.
“We were looking for a private, secure place for the women to train and found somewhere in the middle of one of our largest plazas. We’ve also recruited a manager so, hopefully, we can have a women’s team at HWC next year.”
But back to this year and a plane load of excited players about to land in Scandinavia for the experience of a lifetime.
“They were on cloud nine seeing their name on a plane ticket,” relates Hossam. “One player Emma - who calls themself Zero and who comes from a mental health background where she’s struggled with addiction and alcohol - has been clean for two years. She was amazed to find out she’d be on a flight for seven hours and kept asking me ‘how do you do this?’
“Another player, Cesar from Quebec, read the itinerary and said, ‘this is like a Cinderella dream, the part when her foot fits into the glass shoes.’ Cesar is in the shelter system and is close to getting accommodation - getting a place to live and coming to Oslo allows us to plan his route for him when he returns from the tournament.
“We also have a plan for Emma - when she returns we are starting to train her as a referee - she loves the journey referee Ed has been on and she wants that opportunity too.
“Then there’s Mourad, from a mental health background, who is working on his coaching certificate. He played soccer semi pro at a young age and now he wants to be a coach. In my mind, if he keeps going as he is, I’m going to make him the national coach of Team Canada one day. And why not?”
With so much of his dream now achieved, there’s no question emotions will be running high for Hossam and he smiles knowingly.
“My family always tell me that I don’t cry easily but I have a feeling this may be one of the very few moments in my life when the tears will flow,” he admits. “When I see the Canadian flag, watch the team we selected, see their faces as they join the parade and walk into this space...
“I’ve walked into this space by myself for many years now, watching other countries’ teams take part, so I think seeing my own team join the Homeless World Cup family will be very emotional for me.”