Now in its third year, The Big Issue Street Football Festival is a free, annual event run by The Big Issue. As well as raising awareness about homelessness, it seeks to raise money through team registrations to support its Community Street Soccer Program, which sees homeless, disabled, unemployed and otherwise disadvantaged men and women meet weekly for soccer training and matches. These players use soccer to improve their health, reconnect with their community and build their self-esteem.
On Friday January 18 there will be a launch event featuring media personalities, the Westfield Matildas, parliamentarians and Indigenous players, running from 8.00am to 11.00am. A number of competitions will then run throughout the Festival, including the Junior Competition, comprising of more than 50 junior teams from NSW clubs, and the Government Agency Cup, which includes police and fire fighters.
On Wednesday January 23, the A-League Youth Challenge will take place from 12.00pm to 4.30pm. This competition will be made up of U21s from Central Coast Mariners, Sydney FC, Western Sydney Wanderers, Melbourne Heart, Brisbane Roar and the Australian Institute of Sport. The Corporate Cup will run from Monday January 21 to Thursday January 24, consisting of sixteen teams from some of Sydney's largest companies.
If you want to see the main event however, you'll want to visit on Sunday January 27 (3.00pm to 8.00pm) or Monday January 28 (12.00pm to 4.00pm), when the Community Street Soccer Program National Championships will be held. The competition consists of more than 60 homeless and marginalised players from around the country representing their state or territory as part of the Street Soccer Program.
In total, 1000 players are expected to take part in over 250 matches throughout The Big Issue Street Football Festival, up from 900 participants last year. Even if you're not into the sport, just seeing one of the matches take place on the floating pitch should be pretty fun.
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