One Step Closer to Equality

What language can people from all around the world understand? The game of football or in America, soccer. Football is the world’s game; it is the most well-known and played throughout the world. It connects people using one thing, a ball. Football is more than just a sport it is a life enhancing drug because it teaches a person cooperation, it builds character, and it allows people to constantly gain confidence. Most of all, it allows someone to be a part of something; a team and a culture. This is precisely why the Homeless World Cup takes place annually.

                The Homeless World Cup is a 4 on 4 football tournament that takes place in a different country every year and 48 countries have a team. There are qualifying tournaments throughout the country to see what players get to be on the national team. All players qualify to compete in the Homeless World Cup only if they have never played in a Homeless World Cup before and if they meet one of these criteria: have been homeless since Jan. 2010, they make their main living off being a street paper vendor, they are asylum seekers currently without positive asylum status or who were previously asylum seekers but obtained residency status after Jan. 2010, or if they are currently in drug or alcohol rehabilitation and have been homeless in the last two years. This creates an equal setting for these players. They don’t have to worry about being judged by the other players or discriminated against because they all have gone through the same thing. In fact it probably creates a stronger bond between the players because they all have that horrible experience in common.  This creates a comfortable atmosphere for these people, something they probably aren’t used to.

                Being a part of a team creates responsibility for these players as well as discipline to show up on time to every practice and games. This gives these people the determination and self-esteem to go into the real world knowing they can handle responsibilities and that it actually pays off to complete their responsibilities. Playing in a setting where people are gathered around watching and cheering for you gives an immense amount of confidence and pride to a player. It offers the feeling of being a part of something big and an abundance of self-worth.  The homeless society doesn’t really get to have a chance to feel these needed self-esteem boosters.

                Creating these life changing opportunities, especially for the people who have limited opportunities available allows them to pursue and release that same confidence and responsibility out in the real world. Actually making the national team and making it to the Homeless World Cup reinforces and promotes the ability to reach the American Dream through perseverance and hard work.

                If we get more intensive news coverage and more events going related to the Homeless World Cup we can get more people exposed to the lifestyle of the homeless. This is a chance to show the world, especially the United States, that the homeless are not hopeless and that they really do exist! We need more local events so we can start small and grow. If we have a large number of these poverty and homeless exposing events over large amount of land, then it will be easier to inform others and to spread the idea that we in fact do need a change to this poverty. We need more documentaries on this topic, and even more on this Homeless World Cup (there is one already called Kicking It check it out on Netflix), possibly having one about the players in the tournament and how their lives after to see how it changed for better or for worse. I know there are a few local branches throughout the U.S. similar to the Homeless World Cup, one of them being in Seattle, but I feel like there aren’t enough. It is at too small of a scale. There are an abundance of homeless people that are wanting a chance to change their lives and a chance to compete and be a part of this positive environment.