The Homeless World Cup, brought to you by Nike from the great city of Rio
de Janeiro.
http://itn.co.uk/e1cb548388c397dbfd0621eaa92fae93.html
It was a carnival atmosphere on Sunday at Rio de Janeiro's iconic Copacabana beach as the eighth Homeless Football World Cup kicked off.
Thousands are expected to watch approximately 1,200 homeless players from 64 countries, including 16 female teams.
The week long tournament at Copacabana beach at the two-pitch arena built by many of the supporters, including Uefa and the United Nations representatives.
The goal of the event is to promote getting homeless people all around the world off the streets and back into work.
According to the organisers, for a homeless athlete to be eligible to compete they must have been homeless at some point since the previous tournament was held, in accordance with their nation's definition of homelessness.
The competition is played on a street soccer format. Each team has three players plus a goalkeeper. They also have four reserve players to make up their squad.
During the competition, all of them must have an opportunity to play a certain amount of time, with the possibility of a penalty if this rule is not fulfilled. The duration of a match is 15 minutes, with two halves of 7 minutes plus a one minute interval.
The competition started with a South American duel between Brazil and Chile, won by the hosts 7-6. Following that, United States faced Ukraine, with the Eastern Europeans winning 3-2.
The tournament organisers claims that 77 per cent of players who have participated in the competition have improved their lives.
Their main example is Bebe from Portugal. Living in a shelter on the outskirts of Lisbon, his team did not qualify to represent his home country, but after playing a pre-tournament, he was able to sign with Estrela da Amadora, a small Portuguese club.
From there, he went to Vitoria de Guimaraes and last month, he signed with Manchester United, after a recommendation from former Portugal Head Coach Carlos Queiroz.
And other homeless world cup news:
Nigeria players unable to go because they could not raise the funds to participate:
http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/Sport/5620242-147/n5m_costs_nigeria_homeless_world_cup.csp
Zimbabwe disqualified as nine of its members run away the time before:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5isyxrV1xT2vXd9moZt71F9b_U3sg
