2016 marks the 14th year of the Homeless World Cup. From an idea that was formed in 2001 to a tournament that now has 64 teams involved, the Homeless World Cup has come an incredibly long way.
When the tournament first started, people didn't think it would be possible to fly hundreds of homeless individuals across the world to play in a football tournament. Some people thought the whole idea was utterly ludicrous! I admit, the idea was ambitious and I can assure you it hasn't been an easy ride. The first tournament was held in 2003 in Austria with just 18 countries competing, and since then we have hosted across the globe in Scandinavia, Australia, South America, Central America, and throughout Western Europe. Now here in 2016, in Glasgow, we will bring together over 500 homeless individuals from 52 countries around the world to compete in a tournament that will be watched by over 100,000 spectators. The sheer number of people involved in the tournament, from the players, to the coaching staff and all the local volunteers from Scotland -- makes me incredibly proud.
A great deal of hard work goes into the annual tournament, but our work goes way beyond this one-week event. Over the course of the year, our network of National Partners from around the world work incredibly hard to change the lives of so many homeless individuals through coaching, research and fundraising. However, when reflecting over the past 15 years, it's the players who really create the change. It is an incredibly brave task to remove yourself from an existing situation in order to breakdown barriers and drive change, so for that reason, I am most proud of the players.
With the success of the Homeless World Cup, some people may think I have achieved my ambitious goal. However, whilst I am overwhelmingly proud of where we've got to, the journey does not finish here. In fact, my goal may seem rather peculiar; in 15 years' time, I would like the Homeless World Cup to no longer exist! I would like to see a world where nobody is socially excluded from society. A world that doesn't accept there will always be poverty.
However, unfortunately we are very far from this goal. Therefore, in the next 15 years, I would like the HWC to have doubled in effectiveness. It's not necessarily about growing bigger, even though I suspect we will. It's about making sure our coaching programme continues to improve and that more homeless people can be helped through the Homeless World Cup initiative- being re-housed and given a job when they return home from the tournament. Our vision is to be the leading sports organization in the world that makes the biggest impact by changing people's lives and providing a lead for others to follow.
In order to make the biggest impact, it is immensely important to ensure that as many countries from around the world are involved in the project as possible. There are still some countries that refuse to accept the issue of homelessness, so I want to tackle this and ensure the topic is higher on the global news agenda. For this reason, we move the event around the world in order to build our profile. Looking at our plans for the next 15 years, we've never been to Asia so we would like to go there, we've only been to Africa once so would like to go back... and we want to be in the USA. Our wish is to have presence in every country so that we can demonstrate how the mechanism of football and sport has the power to change the issue of homelessness.
For spectators coming down to this year's tournament, my main hope is that they never look at a homeless person in the same way. I want the tournament to change the general public's view on homelessness away from the stereotypical view of begging on the street. All our guys are physically fit and active, challenging and destroying this stereotypical image.
Together, lets change perceptions and drive impact and change for some of the most socially excluded individuals in the world.
See you in Glasgow.
Mel Young.