A contigent of eight players and two officials from Ghana are participating in this year's edition of the Homeless World Cup in the Italian city of milan,the sports capital of Italy.

Mel Young, Founder and President of Homeless World Cup Foundation uses football to energise people who are homeless to take a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to represent their countries and to change their own lives forever and to change the mind of the government,media and the key influencers to create a solution to the Homeless around the world.It was established to develope grass roots projects

This year's edition is the 7th of the annual soccer fiesta which attracted 48 countires around the globe.The maiden edition of the Homeless World Cup kicked off in Graz,Austria with 18 countries in 2003.Gothenburg,Sweden hosted in 2004.It gained momentum in Edinburgh,Scotland(2005),Cape Town, South Africa(2006) and Copenhagen,Denmark (2007).In Melbourne, Australia(2008) was the biggest Homeless World Cup ever with 56 countries participating including the first Women's Cup.The next event will be hosted in Rio,Brazil

Players selected for the Homeless World Cup must have been homeless at some point in time according to the national definition of homeless or make their income as street paper vendors, asylum seekers or are currently in drug or alcohol rehabilitation.

The annual event takes place over a period of seven days.A special stadium is built on the street with play taking place on an enclosed street-surface court.This year's event is taking place at the Arena Civica, the first stadium used by AC Milan and Inter Milan before San Siro.

The Homeless World Cup which is a street soccer event is very fast and entertaining with four players on the field of play.Last for 14 minutes, that's 7 minutes on each half with one a minute break.

Ivory Coast,Malawi,Namibia,South Africa and Nigeria were the other countries who make the Africa contingent . The Homeless World Cup is been supported by UEFA, Nike,Vodafon Foundation,Global Ambassador Eric Cantona,Didier Drogba and Rio Ferdinand of Manchester United fame. As at the time of filling this report Team Ghana was in the trouphy zone