Two women players, staff, volunteers, and one woman kangaroo
With two women players, two women staff, two women volunteers, and one woman kangaroo mascot, the Aussies are not just advocating for gender parity in their Homeless World Cup make-up, they’re embodying it.
Such balance is a fantastic result for the Australians, who are often able only to bring one woman player and one woman staff member, both due to cost and also the emerging nature of the Australian women’s programmes. (Teams have the option of bring a mixed team that plays in the mixed competition that primarily comprises men and/or bringing a women’s team. It’s relatively expensive to transport players and staff around the world given how geographically isolated Australia is. That and the fact that Australia’s women-specific street football programme is still building means that Australia often brings a mixed team that includes one woman. But they’re working to achieve the double.)
The women involved with the Australian women’s contingent are led by New South Wales and Australian Capital Territory street soccer co-ordinator and former teacher Jenny and West Australian coordinator Celia. Celia took on the co-ordination of the programme after encountering it with a client. She’s now so immersed that she has completed her coaching licence and is about to complete her goalkeeping one.
Steering them through the tournament is Norway-based team guide Gunvor. Gunvor supported the Australian team at the previous Oslo Homeless World Cup in 2017, and stipulated she’d only return as a 2025 tournament team guide if she could work with the Australians. (Gunvor’s husband passed shortly before the 2017 tournament, so that tournament and this return mark an important touchstone for her.)
Ably supporting off the pitch is Astrid, who may technically be attending the tournament as part of her holidays, but who is attuned to the team’s experience. As is increasingly the case for women over 50 in Australia whose financial and housing support networks are affected through loss of work and divorce, she herself has some experience with homelessness. Astrid, Gunvor, Jen, and Celia are supporting the on-pitch contingent of Rachel and Mish, who hail from the furthest west and east points of Perth and Brisbane.
Experience of homelessness, mental health challenges and/or social exclusion have brought Mish and Rachel to The Big Issue’s street soccer programme. Rachel recently spoke to politicians of how street soccer has been invaluable in helping improve her mental health. Mish joined after being invited down via the transitional housing she was staying in. She’s become a staple in the program, which plays each Friday, so much so that she was also asked to volunteer to support other women participating in it.
“Yeah, I wouldn’t mind to come along,” Mish explains of how she got started. “Then after a while, they asked if I was interested in volunteering. I was like, you know what, it’s great, because I was also wanting to volunteer around that time.”
Mish kicks it with the Australian mixed street soccer programme, which has given her confidence to hold space and hold her own on the pitch in the mixed tournament at the Homeless World Cup. She also gave Tilly the inflatable kangaroo mascot a glow-up courtesy of some lush texta lashes. (She gave compatriot male inflatable kangaroo mascot Jack a little mo.)
Mish’s selection for the Homeless World Cup is what she describes as the light at the end of the tunnel of the season of homelessness she’s encountered as an adult. She’s embraced the sport, although she still calls it ‘soccer’ rather than ‘football’, something Homeless World Cup ambassador, former Fulham footballer, and Ted Lasso football choreographer Kasal Casali gently ribbed her about.
The Perth programme from which Mish and Celia come is a little under two years old, and like the sister schemes around the country, it’s tailored specifically to women’s needs. It’s indoors and fairly private—players often come from refuges and multicultural backgrounds, where it may not always be considered culturally appropriate to play sport in front of men. “We especially chose an indoor court that’s down the way away from all the other courts to protect those women,” Celia says.
Demonstration also fills language gaps. “That’s the beauty of sport, right? You can show the drill, you can just lead with your body and direct that way,” Celia explains. “We also do it a little bit different in the fact that we do an hour’s worth of drills and then play the friendly and then finish with a shooting drill as well.” It helps with developing football skills for women new to the sport, and to develop confidence on the ball before being thrust into game play.
Like its equivalents in Sydney and Western Sydney as well as the recently started Brisbane one, the programme is truly embedded in the community, sitting alongside other activities and services that include sewing. Sometimes women who engage with other initiatives see the football running alongside them and decide to try them, too. (Just before the 2025 tournament kicked off, the Western Sydney programme had 13 women from refugee backgrounds come by to learn more about what was involved.) The football programme commitment requirement is low—it’s offered on a come-and-try and drop-in basis. Its primary goal is building fitness and self-esteem.
“We have this thing where we say ‘If I can do this, I can do that’,” Mish explains. That’s the approach the women are taking to the tournament, and how they’re incrementally building their women’s football programmes and in turn Homeless World Cup participation.
Eventually, all going well, the Australian contingent will have an entire women’s team to represent them at the Homeless World Cup. Until then, their balance is on the rise.
Written By Fiona Crawford, Photo’s By Anita Milas & John Anderson