How Football Is Changing Homeless Lives
Football and goal! What a connection with life!
At a time while all eyes are on the MetLife Stadium, temporarily known as New York New Jersey Stadium, five miles west of New York City, where Spain and Argentina will clash for the FIFA World Cup 2026 title, few know that an organization has embarked on a journey to achieve its goal: a world without homelessness.
The Homeless World Cup Foundation (HWCF) has been working zealously with a single-minded devotion and with unwavering dedication and fiery energy.
Mission: using football “to change lives and tackle homelessness”.
It all began in the early 2000s in Austria. While attending an international conference, it struck Mel Young and Harald Schmied, the co-founders of HWCF, that the very people whose lives were at the center of discussion, had no presence in the room.
A simple question crossed their minds. How homeless people can have same global inspiration and opportunity they were witnessing! After much deliberation on the same day, they landed on a unique idea: football, a game that removes all barriers, a game which is the ultimate metaphor for life, and a language spoken by almost everyone globally.
“By the end of the night we invented the Homeless World Cup global street football tournament where teams from around the world could represent their countries. It was a lively, animated conversation and we both imagined a vibrant event that could change people’s lives,” Young, a social entrepreneur recalled.
In July 2003, the first Homeless World Cup took place in Graz, Austria.
The Foundation with its 78-member countries has now become a global phenomenon and helped transform the lives of over one million people across the world.
Sadly, Schmied was diagnosed with a life-threatening disease in 2016 and passed away in 2018.
However, the Foundation’s journey continues—the relentless pursuit to achieve its goal.
A 2025 UN report says there are about 318 million people worldwide experiencing homelessness with about 2.8 billion people lacking access to adequate housing.
One can buy a virtual seat for the upcoming World Cup Final match and help someone going through unspeakable agony and transform their lives!
You may log on: www.homelessworldcup.org
