This is why Minifootball Federation of Romania is delighted to announce the signing of a collaborative partnership with the Street Soccer Association that is designed to promote a new scheme which aims to promote minifootball as a tool for development and social integration and equal opportunities.
Street Soccer Association is currently conducting national team selection for the Homeless World Cup. National formed by homeless participated so far in five World Championships and this year won his first European title after championship in Munich. In Romania, Catalin Maruta is Homeless World Cup ambassador and a real advocate of this approach.
Romania’s national team made up exclusively of homeless people will attend the 11th edition of the Homeless World Cup to be held in Poznan, Poland, from August 10 to 18.
Razvan Burleanu, President of the Romanian Minifootball Federation, was delighted to link up and said: “Through this project we want to broaden the basis for selection and empower more people to evolve in this street the national team, to determine that through sport to give up alcohol and drugs, and even more, integrate them in a team sport and thus support them in finding a job in a unified approach to social reintegration of their peers.”
Mr Burleanu admitted that this was part of a long-term plan which could see the project expand: “This is a pilot project, we want to expand and European level, in that statistically most of the players selected in the national team return to the streets. It is therefore our duty to reflect and to co-operate, human behavior leading to changes in search of what is best for our society.”