By Inas Mazhar The Homeless World Cup is a biannual street soccer tournament uniting teams of homeless people from around the globe. Inas Mazhar covered the event from the UK. Organised by the International Network of Street Papers, the HWC is sponsored and supported by the UEFA, the footballing world, the United Nations, Nike and the corporate sector. A fast growing, fast-paced, highly competitive, dynamic sport full of courage, inspiration, grit and energy, it is capturing the imagination of millions worldwide and proving sports' massive potential for social inclusion. Homeless World Cup teams are supported by several world class football teams -- England is supported by Manchester United and Spain has links with Real Madrid -- and it is hoped their lead will spark support and involvement from other clubs in setting up soccer academies around the world to further increase the global impact of street soccer and the Homeless World Cup. The third Homeless World Cup tournament was staged in Edinburgh's Princes Street Gardens from 20-24 July. Italy beat Poland 3-2 to retain the trophy. The home team Scotland finished fourth following a 2--1 defeat by the Ukraine which took third. Mel Young, director of the event and co-founder of street soccer, says the tournament is not just about getting teams out of homelessness. "The World Cup is also about changing attitudes because the crowds are seeing homeless people and it is completely changing their stereotypical view of what a homeless person is. "I mean they'll say 'homeless people?' Watching them playing such an exciting game and playing it with such spirit, it just doesn't equate with their stereotypical view. "We're trying to change that attitude, and with the past two tournaments that has happened and I'm sure that it will happen again in Scotland. "Treat the homeless the same as everyone else, the only difference between us is that you have a home and we don't," Young said. The five-day tournament hosted 32 countries. Seven African nations were originally scheduled to take part but only two managed to make the journey to Edinburgh. Kenya, Zambia, Burundi, Cameroon and Nigeria were denied entry on the basis that they did not have sufficient funds to support themselves whilst visiting the UK. The incident came shortly after the G8 summit where discussions about eliminating poverty in Africa were the focus. "The G8 saw the British government lead the way in discussing grand gestures and pledges for Africa," Young said. "They have now missed an opportunity to lead the world in taking real action towards making poverty history and creating significant real change. "The Homeless World Cup is designed to support and encourage people to transform their lives, to lift themselves from poverty and it has had significant success with 70 per cent of players in the last two World Cups going on to improve their situation," Young added. "To deny homeless people access to the UK on the basis that they are too poor is ridiculous. It raises some serious questions around the British governments commitment to taking action towards alleviating poverty in Africa." Despite organisers of the five teams making every effort to fulfill all the British government's entry requirements over the last six months the news was broken to the teams with only a couple of days before they were set to travel, allowing no time to appeal the decision. The Burundi team, formed from street children from the capital Bujumbura, were given information initially which indicated that they should travel to Uganda in order to have their fingerprints taken to apply for British visas. However, they were eventually offered Rwanda as an alternative and had to make a six-day round trip for fingerprinting and interviewing. This was both arduous and expensive. Burundi organiser Jean-Marie Bizimana was distraught at the decision. "I do not think the entry clearance officials took the time to read all the documents or get in touch with the organisers. It is a catastrophe. Our small funds have been used on preparations in the hope that the Homeless World Cup would generate interest. After a long period of preparation we will need to work hard to keep the young boys and girls away from the streets and drugs. They will say 'no chance, no hope' after this." Bizimana hopes to organise a football tournament in Rwanda in an effort to help street children recover from the disappointment of missing out on Edinburgh. Nigeria was turned down after embassy officials decided the players would not have enough money to support themselves in Scotland. This was despite assurances from both team officials and the Homeless World Cup office in Edinburgh that all the players' needs were taken care of during the tournament in Edinburgh. The players had accommodation at Edinburgh University's Pollock Halls of Residence and free meals. The German street paper BISS had donated a daily allowance to all the African players. The African teams had included letters from previous host governments in their application package. Both the Austrian and Swedish governments commended the players from previous Homeless World Cups on their behaviour and attitude.
