Homeless World Cup team goes to India to deliver Football Coach Program

#FootballFirst will be developed with our National Partner in India Slum Soccer in association with the English Premier League's International Small Grants Fund.

Homeless World Cup works through an International network of 73 Partners and has developed #FootballFirst as a unique, modular coach education programme with flexible entry points to best suit the needs of our global network. It builds national partner's capacity to grow their programmes and gives players a step up into the world of organised football and onto the pathway out of homelessness.

Over a 16 day period 75 coaches and six coach educators will be trained to deliver high quality, regular coaching sessions, create teams, and run leagues and tournaments. Coaches use their own life experiences alongside the core coaching skills to deliver a strong social message to vulnerable and peer groups on how to avoid or deal with the difficulties they face - and skills gained in planning, organisation, budgeting, monitoring and evaluation are ultimately transferable to other areas of life, such as home and job acquisition or development of locally determined social enterprise activities.

The courses will be run in Nagpur (Slum Soccer’s HQ) and Chennai, with participants drawn from eight different cities across the country – extending the opportunity to play football to an extra 4.000 homeless players in the coming months. By creating a pool of coach educators to replicate the training wherever/whenever required the course will enable Slum Soccer to extend its programme and ensure sustainability in the coming years.

Homeless World Cup Foundation Director of International Development Deborah Ball said, "It is a great opportunity to contribute to the development of Slum Soccer's programme and offer opportunities to homeless players in India. By working in partnership with the English Premier League, UK Sport and Tottenham Hotspur FC we have been able to create a sustainable and lasting contribution to the development of grassroots football with Slum Soccer in India."

Homeless World Cup Foundation Director of Football Andy Hook said, "Helping to develop coaches and players at this level provide a strong base for the long term development of football in India which is very exciting, it has been great to see the organisation grow over the past four years with the development of a strong group of coaches and the introduction of the women's programme."

This is the third visit of the Homeless World Cup team to India.