2004 Homeless World Cup

[RedSkunk]

mighty_potato alerted me to this in his general topic, I wanted to see the responses here.

Homeless football [*cough* soccer] cup under way
"The second football World Cup for the homeless has kicked off in the Swedish city of Gothenburg.

More than 200 homeless players representing 28 countries from four continents are taking part.

The tournament is designed both to highlight the problem of homelessness and to help those involved overcome their problems.

The event is organised by a worldwide network of street papers and supported by sporting goods manufacturers.
...
Last year's event was won by the host country, Austria.

Organisers say it was a big success, with 31 of the 141 players now holding regular jobs and 12 signed as football players or coaches.

Forty-nine players are said to have changed their lives around by taking courses, overcoming addictions or finding a home.
...
Among this year's 28 participating countries are Argentina, Brazil, Britain, France, Japan, Kenya, Namibia, Poland, Russia, South Africa and the US.
[ Full Story ]

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So, it's therapeutic for the players and raises awareness of homeless-related issues. What are people's thoughts of this cup? Does it do any good? Solve anything? Any redeemable value? Totally worthless? Pointless? Funneh?

[bumcheekcity]

At 7/26/04 12:16 PM, uncle_skunk wrote: So, it's therapeutic for the players and raises awareness of homeless-related issues. What are people's thoughts of this cup? Does it do any good? Solve anything? Any redeemable value? Totally worthless? Pointless? Funneh?

WEell, nobodys getting hurt, so let it continue. I've never heard of it thought, so it's not much good at highlighting ideas... Pointless, but ah, so are a lot of things.

[Jemistad]

I think it's cool. They're probablly really good at football aswell - after all vodka gives you an extra kick.