The Role of Homeless World Cup Participation for Social Change

Abstract

Sport for Development initiative is on the rise, which aims at overcoming various social issues in the world. Recently, attention to the role of sport for marginalized people has been widely studied, and several studies have investigated the relationship among sport, homelessness, drug user, people with HIV and poverty. One of the sport events that has considered these issues is the Homeless World Cup (HWC). A few years ago, Manchester United made a contract with a homeless player, named Bebe, who had been selected as a player of Homeless World Cup (HWC) to represent Portugal. He got the chances to change and develop his life through the HWC program. This HWC program has contributed to improve the motivation of marginalized people (such as homeless people) to develop their life. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to understand the experiences of Indonesia HWC players, the value of being a Player in the tournament and the influence of players' participation in the HWC toward social change. It employs a qualitative methodology and in-depth interviews were utilized to collect data. Nine players and six administrators including manager, coaches and staff were selected as research participants. However, most studies related to the HWC program seem to emphasize the outcomes. In meaning that it is necessary to examine how the players were motivated to change their life. For that reason, this study also investigates the motivation of players involved in the HWC program and finds out what experiences they had during their involvement as a player. Also, this study has approached sport for development with theoretical approach. Hence, the aim of this study is to understand the value of the HWC for participants Furthermore, this study seeks to investigate the role of experiences as a player on social change. This thesis proposes the understanding that sport as the development of capabilities is beneficial, not only for people in general, but also for marginalized people. Therefore, in the future, this study can be realized as the potential study to better understanding sport as a tool for future development goals.