Homeless World Cup, never before held in US, kicks off in Sacramento in July
Sacramento will host the Homeless World Cup in 2023 — the first time the huge annual international street soccer competition will be held in the United States.
The tournament, set for July 8 through July 15 at Sacramento State, will include more than 500 athletes from more than 50 countries, said Lawrence Cann, founder and CEO of Street Soccer USA.
All players have experienced homelessness within the past three years, or are refugees, Cann said.
“Our mission is to fight poverty through soccer,” Cann said. “The experience of homelessness can be very isolating and very shameful. But that shame can be removed.”
Lisa Wrightsman, director of Street Soccer USA Sacramento, found that to be true. She discovered street soccer over a decade ago while in a sober living program at Mather Community Campus in Rancho Cordova.
“The tournaments are a way to not give in and go back to the old behavior,” said Wrightsman, who grew up in Sacramento. “It gave me that drive to believe if I keep doing these good things I’ll have a reason to get back to the community and be accepted.”
Since 2010, 16 women and about eight men from Sacramento have competed in the Homeless World Cup, Wrightsman said.
The last tournament was held in Wales in 2019, with the past three postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic. Previous tournaments have been in Copenhagen, South Africa, Australia, and under the Eiffel Tower in Paris, and typically draw thousands of spectators.
“They come back different,” she said. “They’re no longer afraid of applying for a job, no longer afraid of standing up for themselves. It’s not entirely focused on the skill, it’s something anybody can step in to.”
Symposium is part of Homeless World Cup Sacramento
The tournament will also include a symposium, where leaders from different countries can share what strategies and programs were effective in reducing their homeless populations, Wrightsman said.
“It can be a conversation in a different space than we’ve had to date,” Wrightsman said. “We all have different resources but the issue seems to be rooted in the same thing”
Sacramento State President Robert S. Nelsen agreed.
“This event will reimagine the conversations surrounding the global issue of homelessness while transforming the lives of the athletes as well as the spectators,” Nelsen said in a news release.
Sacramento has roughly 9,300 homeless people, a January count found — up from 5,570 in January 2019, and more than San Francisco.
In addition to the unhoused and formerly unhoused, Wrightsman also hopes Afghan refugees benefit from the tournament, she said. Sacramento County has the largest concentration of Afghans in the U.S.
“For our Afghan participants, to be representing an elite event, we hope that will help our folks who’ve been recently transplanted to Sacramento to feel like they can have a community they can latch on to,” Wrightsman said.
What is street soccer?
Street soccer is more high scoring and fast paced than regular soccer, using walled courts the size of basketball courts, Cann said. Three fields will be set up at Hornet Stadium.
Tryouts for the Homeless World Cup are being held in June. There will likely be at least one player from Sacramento on the U.S. team, Cann said.
Street Soccer Sacramento opened a court at Eighth Street and Broadway in 2020, giving refugees and unhoused men and women the chance to play and maybe make it to the tournament one day.
People who want to get involved in Sacramento’s street soccer program can email Wrightsman at Lisa@streetsoccerusa.org.
This story was originally published December 19, 2022 at 9:00 AM.
