Northern Irish football fan Stephen Collins raised more than £3,000 to help Street Soccer NI compete in this year’s Homeless World Cup – by cycling to his home squad’s fixtures at Euro 2016.

As all large gatherings, especially sporting events, fell victim to coronavirus lockdown restrictions, this year’s Homeless World Cup, due to take place in Finnish city Tampere, was cancelled. In the wake of the pandemic, organisers of the tournament, which brings together street soccer teams from across the globe, moved everything online in an effort to continue to use the power of sport for good. The result is this weekend’s virtual Homeless World Cup Day.

The Homeless World Cup kicks off in Glasgow on Sunday – we caught up with some of the players who are also street paper vendors.

Scottish Homeless World Cup star Stephanie has beaten addiction & homelessness to play for her country. She’s competed in front of thousands of fans, including First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.

In the midst of the tournament, we learn how The Big Issue Australia helped seven players bring the infectious “Aussie team spirit” to the Homeless World Cup in Glasgow. The experience has already rendered goalkeeper Shannon “speechless”.

This weekend marks the start of the 2019 Homeless World Cup, and INSP is heading to Cardiff to attend. Ahead of kick off, Welsh team representatives from this year and tournaments past received international caps, an honour which means they have now been officially recognised for representing their country in the sport.

Acclaimed actor turned activist and social enterprise advocate Michael Sheen is an ambassador for the 2019 Homeless World Cup being held in his home country of Wales. He told The Big Issue why he spearheaded the bid for the tournament to head to Cardiff.

A year on from the Homeless World Cup in Glasgow, the tournament is still changing lives. The Legacy Project has helped event volunteers – all of whom had experience of homelessness or substance abuse issues – to continue improving their skills and confidence through sport. INSP met volunteer John Mooney, who is now a tennis coach.

Not everyone knows that street paper organisations have myriad social projects that go alongside the creation and sale of the publication itself. Sport programmes are increasingly popular and at the 2019 Homeless World Cup several of the competing nation teams were chosen from such projects. INSP caught up with Axel Woltmann, one of the players on the Swiss team, which stems from the country’s street paper organisation, Surprise.

Meet the new Street Socceroos! Eight of the fittest and finest Big Issue Street Soccer stars are representing Australia in the 17th annual Homeless World Cup. They’re in Cardiff, Wales, where they are competing against 50 other nations. For some, it’s their first time overseas. For all, it will be a life-changing experience.

The Big Issue Korea’s street soccer team are representing South Korea at the 2019 Homeless World Cup being held in Cardiff, Wales. During a break in play, members of the group visited The Big Issue UK’s office in the city.

This is the true story behind the Homeless World Cup viral video of the week. Stella Mavridou is a fan favourite this week at the Homeless World Cup in Glasgow. She tells us her harrowing story – and how she turned her life around through Shedia.

Representing INSP at the 2019 Homeless World Cup, Tony Inglis had a day to take in as much of the tournament as possible. With a number of the national teams represented being affiliated with street papers in their respective countries, he took it upon himself to ensure that he supported them all at least once over the course of the day. It presented an intriguing match clash which happened to bring out the best in what the event has to offer – fair play, camaraderie, friendship and excellent football.

INSP caught up with two of the younger players representing their country at the 2019 Homeless World Cup. Angela Ntoumanoglou, from Greece, and Jungho Kang, from Korea, are only teenagers, and both participate in street football for different reasons, though both agree that getting to play at the tournament was a once in a lifetime experience.

Ex-RAF veteran Gary Godfrey moved back to Glasgow, Scotland, last year and onto couches and hostels after battling substance abuse and alcohol misuse. Now, he is captaining his country in an international tournament, about to move into an apartment and start a new job. INSP spoke to him between matches at the 2019 Homeless World Cup in Cardiff, Wales.

Since 1990, communities across the US, while shoppers frantically prepare for Christmas, meet on the first day of winter and longest night of the year to commemorate those who have died while homeless in the last year. This year, 150 such gatherings took place on what is known as National Homeless Persons’ Memorial Day. Among them were those attended and organised by US-based street papers, accounts of which are collated here.

This year, Scotland is the place to be for charities, social entrepreneurs and purpose-driven businesses. The INSP Talks, an event at The Lighthouse as part of the INSP Global Street Paper Summit, hosted in Glasgow this week, will be dedicated to the country’s social business scene, as well as showcase social enterprises run by street papers. In addition, the Social Enterprise World Forum (SEWF), an international gathering for people involved in social enterprises across the planet to come together, share ideas and learn from each other about the future of their sector, is being hosted in Edinburgh in September. As a media partner for the SEWF, INSP is bringing you a series of conversations conducted with the folks behind some of the brightest social businesses involved in the event. David Duke has first-hand experience of what it’s like to be homeless and a lack of purpose, he says, can keep a person from finding their way out of a desperate situation. His organisation, Street Soccer Scotland, gives them an opportunity to find that purpose.

As Russia prepares this week to welcome legions of soccer fans to the country for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, editor of St Petersburg street paper Put Domoi, Arkady Tyurin, reflects on the life of a street paper in Russia, its vendors, the homeless population, and how the international tournament will affect them.

On the first day of this year’s Global Street Paper Summit, current INSP chair Fay Selvan was joined in conversation by INSP co-founder, first ever chair, former honorary president, and co-founder of the Homeless World Cup, Mel Young, for a wide-ranging discussion about the past, present and future of the street paper movement as INSP turns 25. The conversation was moderated by Hannele Huhtala, editor-in-chief of Finnish street paper Iso Numero. The full transcript is now available.

Homeless World Cup special! Ahead of this year’s tournament – which kicks off in Glasgow this Sunday – INSP caught up with Surprise vendor Ruedi Kälin, who has been selected for the Swiss team.

With Covid vaccines being rolled out differently across the world, that means marginalised and vulnerable communities in different parts of the world are receiving immunisation at different rates. But it does mean some good news: street paper vendors are beginning to receive the jab, and with the world opening up again, that’s more than welcome.

Norbert has sold street papers all over the UK and has settled into a new rhythm of life since moving to York two and a half years ago. He’s happy to work in a city where magazine vendors support each other and is hoping to establish a permanent pitch outside York train station. Norbert is also passionate about campaigning on issues affecting the homeless and runs the Homeless Britain Facebook page in addition to his work as a vendor.

A group of #INSP2019 delegates were lucky enough to learn about Hannover’s homelessness situation from host street paper, Asphalt, and one of its vendors, Thomas. Delegates visited the Asphalt office, learning about its processes and were given a tour of social spots important to those living on the streets of Hannover.

Soak up a summery selection of animal-mad street paper covers with pugs, wolves, chickens, seagulls and crabs – plus Pikachu and the fish star of Finding Dory.