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The Homeless World Cup Changes Lives
When the Homeless World Cup rolled into Edinburgh it was
time to welcome back a few old friends. You can read
their stories here.
David Duke returns as Scotland's assistant coach. After
playing for the Scottish team in Gothenburg last year
David has got his life back on track.
He is still grateful for the opportunities the Homeless
World Cup gave him.
David says: “It got me back involved in football, which
I’d loved from an early age. I decided I wanted to
pursue a career in coaching.
"Through various opportunities, Ally Dawson (Scottish
squad coach) got me into the Street League. I also
started doing my Scottish Football Association coaching
badges, and I’m now a certified youth coach.
“I started running a local football team on the south
side of Glasgow, Moss Park Boys Club. I’m also doing
coaching certificates in various other sports. I’m also
doing child protection and coaching disabled people."
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David is looking forward to helping the Scottish team in
Edinburgh: "I've shared their experience by taking part
last year so it means I can show them a wee bit and
hopefully motivate them to get themselves back on track."
Returning to the Homeless World Cup for the third time
is Peter Skrabut. Having played in both 2003 and 2004
Peter is now assistant coach of the German team.
Peter is also looking forward to the giving this year's
German team guidance.
He says: "“Following the 2004 tournament my life changed
significantly. I started my own library business and I
am attending evening classes to earn a high school
degree.
"Hopefully I will start studying psychology at
university afterwards. I’m optimistic that I’ll not fall
back into my habit of smoking cigarettes.
“Accompanying the German team to the Homeless World Cup
2005 as assistant manager makes me very proud. I’ll
certainly try and help the players succeed in the
tournament and in their future lives."
And Lee Jones will be looking to help the Welsh Dragons
roar in Princes Street Gardens.
Having played in both Graz and Gothenburg Lee is now
looking foward to helping the Welsh team in his new role
as assistant coach.
Lee says: "I was captain the first year and halfway
through the second I was asked to be captain again when
their first choice didn’t work out.
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"Now I’ve been
asked to be assistant manager and I’ve been involved
since the start. It’s going to be hard not playing this
year as I love to play football but I will be watching a
team that the manager and I picked and trained.
“I can’t work due to a mild form of schizophrenia which
is stress induced – it’s just another obstacle to
overcome – but in these last three years a lot of things
have changed for me.
"I have got access to my two children, who are four and
six-years-old, it took a year to get my ex-wife into
court and a further six months to have them stay with me
on a regular basis.
"I have also got a flat now and I have been in a serious
relationship for almost two years, which is awesome.
“Football gives me strength and if it wasn’t for that I
don’t know what I would have done. It gives you
something to look forward to, to strive for. Hostels are
draining; you are in with people you don’t know and who
have all sorts of problems – it’s a terrible life.
"The Homeless World Cup highlights the fact that we
aren’t all alcoholics who want to be homeless. A lot of
homeless people want a chance to get on with life and if
it takes football to get that into the average person’s
brain you have to support it 100 per cent.”
Let's make sure Edinburgh gives a warm welcome to all
those that are returning to enjoy, once again, the
Homeless World Cup.
POLISH EAGLES 2005
3rd in Gothenburg Poland arrive in Edinburgh hoping to
make a strong challenge for the Homeless World Cup
Trophy.
The
Association was established in order to integrate and
raise the level of development and education of people
threatened with social exclusion. The Association
understands the importance of social integration of
people who are supposed to set up their own social
cooperatives in Social Education Centres and
acknowledges the significant impact of the widely
understood social involvement (not only strictly related
to employment).
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The aim of the
Association is to promote active forms of spending free
time, help to discover personal life passions and pursue
personal development. The main sport promoted by the
Association is street soccer, which is an excellent tool
for achieving the abovementioned goals.
The concept underlying street soccer, as outlined by Mel
Young, the initiator of the International Network of
Street Papers, is to promote and socially integrate
different environments around soccer, one of the most
popular sports in the world.
Unlike the commercial version, street soccer, is a sport
that is open to everyone, and does not require
significant financial investment. That is why street
soccer has become a game played by social groups which
lack the opportunities to play soccer in, for example,
clubs or paid sports facilities, or do other
commercially available sports |