How it began
“I was having a beer with my great friend Harald Schmied who ran a street paper for homeless people in Graz, Austria. We had been taking part in the annual conference of the International Network of Street Papers. We sat up late into the night talking about how we could all change the world.”
Mel and Harald agreed that the conference had been great, but they were concerned that it was a gathering of editors, founders, and directors. No people experiencing homelessness had attended.
They posed the question: How could they involve homeless people in the same international inspiration they were experiencing?
After lengthy discussions, they came upon the idea of football, the universal language.“By the end of the night we had invented the Homeless World Cup, where teams from all over the world could represent their country in a week-long street soccer tournament. It was a lively and animated conversation and we both imagined a colourful football competition which would change people’s lives,” said Mel.
The first Homeless World Cup took place 18 months later in Graz, Austria, in July 2003. Since then, the Homeless World Cup has been held all over the world and until the pandemic took place every year.
Graz
2003
Mel Young
Mel Young is a globally recognised social entrepreneur who co-founded The Big Issue in Scotland in 1993, the International Network of Street Papers (INSP) in 1995 and Social Entrepreneurs Network Scotland (Senscot) in 1999.
Mel is also a Fellow of the Schwab Foundation of the World Economic Forum and a Senior Ashoka Fellow – both international organisations that bring together leading social entrepreneurs. He is currently Chair of sportscotland, the national agency for sport in Scotland.
He has been awarded five honorary degrees from Scottish universities. He is a lifelong supporter of Hibernian FC and the author of GOAL! The story of the Homeless World Cup.
Mel also teamed up with Peter Barr to write Home Game – the Official Story of the Homeless World Cup – which provides an insight into the birth of the Homeless World Cup and how it has become a global phenomenon, helping to transform the lives of over one million people in 70 countries – using the power of football.
Harald Schmied
Harald Schmied studied History/Social Studies and German Linguistics at The University of Graz and Management of Social Innovations at the University of Applied Science in Linz.
He worked as Head of Communications & Fundraising, as well as Member of the Management Board, at Caritas Styria. His previous positions included CEO of the Homeless World Cup in 2004 and Editor-in-Chief of the Graz-based street paper Megaphon (1998-2004). Before that, he worked as a teacher and a freelance journalist.
For his role as a co-founder of the Homeless World Cup and the inauguration of the first event in Graz, Austria in 2003, he was awarded with the Styrian Human Rights Prize in 2004. More recently, Harald was awarded the Merit Badge of the Republic of Austria, one of the highest awards anyone can receive in the country.
In 2016, Harald was diagnosed with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). He passed away in October 2018.