Kenya Tops Africa at the 2010 Homeless World Cup
By Eric Sande
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil---Copacabana Beach, Rio, Brazil has been the stage for the 2010 Homeless World Cup from 19 - 26 September 2010. Participation included 64 national homeless teams united for a world-class, international football tournament in Brazil, which is the home of street soccer.
Kenya being among the participants laid out its intentions in Rio with a powerful performance against African counterparts Ghana, humbling them with a 12-3 win. They sailed through to the quarters where they met the giants Brazil the host nation. It was at this stage that Kenya the only African team that made it to the quarter finals was knocked out.
Any hopes Kenya had of matching the Brazilians in the second half were swatted away within 5 seconds of the restart. Unlike in the first half, they opened up too much as they searched for an equaliser and this allowed Brazil to score six more as they turned on the style in front of the largest and passionate crowd of these games. Brazil’s sterling performance in the second half destroyed any hopes Kenya had of becoming the first ever African champions. It ended in a 10-3 win for Brazil.
The World Cup Champions were Brazil who crushed Chile 6-0 to record an historic double victory on home soil.
Street soccer is unique from the common football matches that we see on our screens on a day to day basis. It comes with its unique rules targeting the homeless people in the society. Some of the rules stipulated in the just concluded homeless World Cup were: Players, male or female and at least 16 years old (must have turned 16 before 01.09.2010); have not taken part in previous Homeless World Cup tournaments; players must have been homeless at some point after 01.09.2009, in accordance with the national definition of homelessness,making their main living income as street paper vendors; must be asylum seekers currently without positive asylum status or who were previously asylum seekers but obtained residency status after 01.09.2009.
The Kenyan National Street Soccer Selection Tournament for Rio 2010 Homeless World Cup was organised by the Kenya Homeless Street Soccer Association (KHSSA). This street soccer programme began in 2004 and operates in Nairobi and 10 other districts of Kenya involving over 1000 street youth enabling them to confront homelessness, drugs, poverty and prostitution. The association brought together the most talented and deserving homeless players from all its zones to pick the eight players to represent Kenya in this year’s Homeless World Cup in Rio, Brazil.