Homeless World Cup in Denmark
31-07-2007

At the moment Denmark is host for the fifth Homeless World Cup and until now the Danish team has done very well. Two victories and one lost match: 6-4 over Ireland in the opening game, 14-2 over Kirgizstan and the lost one 5-6 to Hungary. Today at 15.55 o’clock the Danish team is meeting Kazakhstan – exiting to see what that will bring. Last year in Cape Town the Danish team got a seventh place and Russia got the great victory and the first place.

Since 2003 Homeless World Cup has been an event once a year. The Homeless World Cup Organisation seated in Edinburgh stands behind world cup and Mel Young is both the initiator and the president of the Homeless World Cup. The idea was created by Mel Young and Harald Schmied at the Annual International Network of Street Papers Conference (INSP) in Cape Town. The goal was to create an international language which could unite the homeless people of the world. The Homeless World Cup has since then got the reputation of changing lives. Many people – also the players in Homeless World Cup agree that football and sport are efficient tools to gather and unite people, be a catalyst for change and a more worthy and positive life. Several of the players tell about new visions about the future like work and regular home and some have already got work and permanent homes.   

The first Homeless World Cup was held in Austria/Graz in 2003, 18 months after the idea was born. 18 nations were represented and since then the number raised and today 48 nations and 500 players are in Copenhagen for the fifth Homeless World Cup.

You can follow the matches, get more knowledge about the players, the games of the play and get a follow-up of the results at The Homeless World Cup Organisations homepage www.homelessworldcup.org and the Danish organisation OMBOLDs homepage www.ombold.dk. You can also read about Homeless World Cup in the Danish homeless newspaper Hus Forbi, nr. 63 July 23 to August 5, 2007. You can also read about it in Politiken (Danish newspaper) July 22, 2007 or you can watch the matches live at Rådhuspladsen (main square at the shopping district), Copenhagen. Check up with the programme, come along and cheer them on.   

At the same time as the Homeless World Cup 2007 in Copenhagen, the city also hosts a Nordic congress about athletics (Nordisk Idrætslærer Kongres Danmark 2007) from July 31 to August 5. The theme is “building bridges” and this is understood – among other things – as building bridges between human beings and between health and life conditions.  The Homeless World Cup fits under the theme and as an empirical example it gives the congress a great opportunity to discuss homeless people and other socially marginalised peoples life conditions, health and social inclusion.  

The next challenge is to build a bridge between and to integrate athletics and sports for socially marginalised people with athletics and sports for the rest of “us”.    

Serap Erkan