History
The Homeless World Cup organization was founded in 2001 by Mel Young and Harald Schmied while searching for an international language to unite homeless people around the world. They decided that football could act as this common ground.
The first annual football tournament for homeless people took place in 2003 in Graz, Austria. Host cities since then have included Gothenburg, Edinburgh, Copenhagen, Cape Town, Melbourne, Milan, Rio de Janeiro and Paris. Mexico City will host the 2012 edition.
Along with the annual event, the Homeless World Cup is establishing itself as a social enterprise. The organization reports that over 70% of players engaged in the event changed their lives by beating addictions, moving into jobs, homes, training, education and repairing relationships. Some participants have also become social entrepreneurs, coaches and players.
To date, the Homeless World Cup has touched the lives of over 200,000 homeless people and created three legacy enterprises, operating in the sports equipment and recycling sectors.
Read more about this topic: Homeless World Cup
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“A man will not need to study history to find out what is best for his own culture.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The history of all countries shows that the working class exclusively by its own effort is able to develop only trade-union consciousness.”
—Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (1870–1924)
“Throughout the history of commercial life nobody has ever quite liked the commission man. His function is too vague, his presence always seems one too many, his profit looks too easy, and even when you admit that he has a necessary function, you feel that this function is, as it were, a personification of something that in an ethical society would not need to exist. If people could deal with one another honestly, they would not need agents.”
—Raymond Chandler (1888–1959)