Many of the footballers representing their countries in an international tournament in South Africa this week were remarkably gaunt, sallow-looking and groomed haphazardly.
They looked, in fact, as if they had spent the past few years living on the streets. Indeed, that is where these improbable athletes had been spending much of their time before arriving at the Homeless World Cup in Cape Town.
The annual tournament, now in its fourth year and ending on Saturday, has brought together 500 players from 48 countries in a project aimed at helping homeless people turn their lives around.
”It helps primarily in terms of psychological changes … homeless people have no self-respect, little self-esteem,” Mel Young, president and co-founder of the group that organises the competition, said in an interview.
The idea behind the tournament was to give participants an aim in life, and for those addicted to drugs or alcohol, an incentive to sober up.
”What happens here is a major thing. They’re standing singing the national anthem, they’re representing their country proudly, they’re playing in a competition which is real, and people are according them respect and taking them seriously,” Young said.
Interest in the Homeless World Cup has come from many quarters. South African President Thabo Mbeki opened the tournament last Sunday, and top professionals from clubs like Manchester United and South Africa’s Kaizer Chiefs have offered to help train players.
Vocal crowds of about 2 000 have flocked to the matches, held on a large parking lot in central Cape Town.
The pace of the matches is fast: four players on each team play two seven-minute periods on a pitch the size of a tennis court.
”It’s very fast, it’s hard, it’s high scoring, it’s great for spectators,” said Johannes Krasa (34), who plays for Austria. ”There’s non-stop action. I love it.”
The traditional skills of conventional football do not always help in these street soccer games, as the English side found when they were defeated 5-3 in the preliminary rounds by Kazakhstan, most of whose squad are paunchy and over 30.
England’s Tony Peacock (18) admitted to being over-confident. ”We thought we’re all young guys, fit, and if you look at the Kazakhstan players … well. But they know how to use the ball.”
Krasa said the Kazakhstan players illustrated the principle that you cannot judge a person by appearances, adding that he had learned a lot on his trip to South Africa.
”When I see the situation in Africa, I know that although I am a homeless man, I am a rich man in comparison … I have really nothing, but they [Africans] have nothing … I don’t know how they can live,” he said.
Surveys conducted after the previous Homeless World Cup, held in Scotland, showed that 80% of those who took part had changed their lives for the better in major ways.
”They came off drugs, got houses, got training, got jobs,” Young said.
The tournament was first held in 2003 in Austria with just five countries competing. — Reuters