The Homeless World Cup A-Z of ‘home’
On World Homeless Day on 10th October, we asked our partners and supporters to tell us what ‘Home’ means and join our campaign to #PlayForHome.
From our member countries to national football associations, to footballing governing bodies, we started a global conversation.
Housing in different countries might be different, but the concept of ‘home’ is universal. From Northern Ireland to Norway, and Philippines to Portugal read our A-Z of what ‘home’ means.
A is for Austria
“Our ‘home’ is the football field. There is so much potential in football, it inspires millions of people worldwide, and together with the Austrian Football Federation (OFB) we want to use it to fill people with enthusiasm and create a positive atmosphere in which you can feel at ‘home’.”
Philipp Albrecht, Project Coordinator, Caritas Graz
B is for Big Issue Korea
“Home is where I can really be myself. I can sleep, brush my teeth, and make my meals. It’s also a place where I can drink coffee with my friends.”
Mr Oh, The Big Issue Korea Vendor
C is for our Portuguese partner, CAIS – Futebol de Rua and Costa Rica -
“At CAIS we believe that home should mean safe place. We all know, however, that often it doesn’t. For almost 20 years we have provided our Street Football Programme beneficiaries with a new safe place they can call home, the street football pitch. There our beneficiaries move into their professional pathways, both on and off the pitch, and become role models for their peers and their communities. Currently more than 50% of our head regional coaches and all of our referees are former players.”
Gonçalo Santos, Head Coordinator of Futebol de Rua, CAIS´s Street Football Programme.
“By definition, a home is made up of supportive, integral, and various people. This is the basis of our mission. Costa Rica, through "Asociación Escuchando A La Gente Sin Techo" is currently building a residential area together with our Central American brothers. In those countries the HWC spirit will reign. We work on behalf of humanity without any discrimination. Therefore, men and women from this side of the world will become better people and live in lovely homes. We can't wait for that day when we will share with our neighbours in their own home.”
Jorge Montero Calderón, Asociación Escuchando A La Gente Sin Techo
D is for former professional footballer David James
“Home is not strictly a material place that I live. Home is where I feel I belong, where I am myself, where I feel safe”
E is for Entrepreneur and Homeless World Cup co-founder Mel Young
“A home is a lot more than having a roof over your head. There is a big difference between homelessness and houselessness. As you go to sleep you might look at the ceiling of a hostel room dormitory, a refugee camp tent or even your friend’s living room ceiling. You might be safe, but you’re not at home. Being at home gives you a sense of safety, security and knowing that it isn’t all temporary. You can relax.
It’s incredible the amount of people who find a sense of belonging on the football pitch. They feel part of something solid. Something reliable. We want everyone to have that sense of security and stability where they live, and to be able to call it their home.”
F is for Finland
“Home is much more than an apartment or a house. Home means safety, love, care, and community. And of course, football.”
Ari ‘Huli’ Huldén, founder of the Homeless Academy, the Finnish Football Association’s Street Football partner
G is for Gatefotball (Norway) and Gatans Lag (Sweden)
“Home is a place where I belong.
Home is a place where I can relax and be “myself” without fear, and without pretending.
My Home can be very different from yours. Different Lifes need different Homes.
A Home has walls that protect me. We need safety to rest, and to grow - and to be whole!
Home is not just a roof and 4 walls. I can live in a beautiful house, and still be “Homeless”!
A Home can make me lonely and isolated. I need Neighbours and a Community that support me and include me. Then I can be confident enough to find a home in myself.”
Gatefotball (Salvation Army)
“To be homeless is to be unsafe and also living with the stress never knowing where you’re going to stay for the night. A home is a place where you can rest, be alone and be yourself. It’s also essential for keeping a job or managing an education. Having a home also gives you the opportunity to live a normal life just like anyone else where you can grow and build a family. Your home is your own personal place. A home means everything.”
Gatans Lag, Sweden
H is for Homeless World Cup Champion, Hero Fiennes Tiffin
"Home to me is where you can feel safe. Where you have food and warmth. Where your people are. Where you feel most comfortable. Everyone deserves a home."
I is for Irish Street Leagues
“For those that have a home, the word ‘home’ is something that’s taken for granted. Like when you say, ‘I’m going home’, but when you think about it, it means everything. Providing your emotional and physical needs, your own space to recharge, to be comfortable, and to be at one with yourself. Big or small, it doesn’t matter. It’s what ‘home’ encapsulates that’s important – family, hopes, dreams, happiness, sadness, love, security. That indescribable moment of comfort and sustenance that you feel but don’t define when you say, ‘I’m going home’.
Sean Kavanagh, Founder, Irish Homeless Street Leagues
J is for Japan
“Home means an important base for life. It is an important place where you feel safe and connected to other people. With a stable home, you can move onto the next step with peace of mind and can rest your mind and body if you face any difficulties.”
Diversity Soccer Association
K is for Kenya
“Home provides security, safe space, control, belonging, identity and privacy, among other things. Bust most of all, it’s a place that can centre us. This doesn’t necessarily have to be the birthplace of a person. It is where you feel secure, and a place you want to go back to, or stay for long periods of time, without ever being bored.
Charles Otieno, Vijana Amani Pamoja
L is for Liberia
“A home means a place where a person feels they belong or an establishment providing residence and care for people with special needs.”
Fodede (Football to Develop Destitute)
M is for Play Soccer Malawi
“Home is where life finds all its fullness. The greatest value a family can offer is that they provide a home. Home is where one feels most content. Home is where children are born, grow up and become responsible citizens. The family is always present. It is also the last to bid farewell when one leaves the world. Home provides the highest sense of belonging. IT accords the closest human relationship possible. It is where one’s heart is. This is where the saying ‘blood is thicker than water’ comes from. A healthy home is the greatest life support system.”
Play Soccer Malawi
N is for Northern Ireland
“Home is where we invite our friends.
We meet our loved ones.
We start our day and finish.
Home is where we get recharged for the next day.
Home is peace, love, warmth, food, relationships, trust, future,
game, play and our castle.
Home where, when I get sick, I would stay there as my sanctuary.
When I go far away my heart will miss home.
Home is the place where I meet the most precious people in my life.
Home where we make our first relationship with our mother, father, sisters
and brothers.
Home is where I build my world.
Sometimes we have to leave our home to find a new home.”
Mehrshad Esfandiari, Street Soccer Northern Ireland
O is for Oasis, South Africa
”Home is the place where you feel you belong, where love is shared, family is built. Memories are created in a home.
Home is where you feel safe, with family that accepts you for who you are. It's where everything begins. We feel safe at home, where family can be secure.”
Robin and the Oasis Team
P is for Pakistan and the Philippines
“Home is the loving arms of a community that values, cares and understands. It is the small tree that protects from the rain. An oasis in a treacherous desert. A tiny island in an endless ocean. It boasts not of brute force, or high walls, or mighty pillars. As long as there is a warm embrace, or a loving smile, or the words, ‘you are safe’, it is the only refuge you could ever need.”
FundLife Philippines
“An abode where nothing but peace, joy and tranquillity abound is said to be a home. A fragrant bliss permeated a place turns a house into home where a loving and caring family gels together like a cohesive bond with emotional connection and delightful sense of belonging. A home has a sentimental value. Even palaces or imposing buildings bear no comparison with it, for a hut ceases to be a hut and becomes a home once magical smile appears on a child's face living there. Feelings of being comfortable, secure, and safe give aromatic pleasure in home where love reigns supreme. It is aptly said, ‘A house is made of bricks and beams. A home is made of love, hopes and dreams’ Our home is our strength and inspiration.” -
Ahmad Nawaz, PDP Foundation, Pakistan
Q is for a place that is quiet and peaceful
R is for Homeless World Cup Champion, Cristina Rodlo
"Home for me is the place where I feel safe, where I can rest and be me at my fullest. Home is where I feel loved and at peace."
Cristina Rodlo
S is for Slum Soccer
"In Indian culture, home is where the heart is. 'Home' embodies a feeling of belonging and is a place that guarantees affection and care. It provides an emotion anchor to face the vicissitudes of life.
Family is an essential element of our home as it imparts in us the values and principles which help us in being a good human being and leading a meaningful life. On a physical plane, the home provides us with sustenance to remain healthy, secure, and free from harm. Mentally, it is a source of peace, tranquillity and joy that comes from being one with people who you can call your own and gives us a reason to return to it."
Slum Soccer, India
T is for Honey Thaljieh
"Home for me is warmth, love, connection, shelter, security, safety, protection and where family and beloved ones are."
Honey Thaljieh
U is for Street Soccer USA
“Home is where I can be myself, surrounded by people that I love: a place of total comfort, whether that’s my apartment, the street soccer park or a friends place.”
Reed Fox / HWC Director, Street Soccer USA
V is for bestselling Crime author and Homeless World Cup board member, Val McDermid
“Home is as much about people as bricks and mortar. It’s the place where I can close the door on the outside world and feel secure with my family; it’s the base from which I can engage with the rest of the world. It’s where my imagination runs wild and frees my words from my head on to the page.”
Val McDermid
W is for proud Welshman Michael Sheen
"Home is where you fit. Where you feel safe. Where you get ready and where you come back to. A readying and a respite. We may leave it but we always carry it with us."
Michael Sheen
X marks a place – as anywhere can be home.
Y is for Younited Belgium
“Home is where I can be myself and where I’m surrounded by friends. My team is my home.”
Aurélie, Player, Younited Belgium
Z is for Homeless World Cup International Partnerships Manager Zoe Hopkins
“Home is where the heart is. This can sometimes be a physical structure of a house or shelter if you are lucky to share with loved ones, but it might also be a family formed around a sports pitch where your team becomes your home. Within the work of Homeless World Cup it is forever humbling to see how the power of grassroots football unites people around a sense of home and belonging.”