The Ukrainian team won the FIFPRO Fair Play Award for their positive sporting attitudes throughout the tournament, organized by the Homeless World Cup Foundation (FIFPRO Fair Play Award for their positive sporting attitudes throughout the tournament).

Photo homelessworldcup.org

The tournament, organized by the Homeless World Cup Foundation (originally — Homeless World Cup Foundation), took place this year on November 12–13 in Spain with teams of boys and girls from underprivileged families living in Portugal, Romania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Italy, Ukraine, Spain (SPAIN UBUNTU DRAGONES and SPAIN UBUNTU) and France.

Photo homelessworldcup.org

The Ukrainian team of boys and girls was formed by the Odesa charitable foundation «Shlyakh do domu», which provides services and assistance to homeless people, including street children. As early as October 2008, the Odesa Charitable Foundation «Shlyakh do domu» launched a football project called «Red Card for Child Neglect». A children's team of street football was formed from the foundation's wards — FC «Domovychok».

Photo homelessworldcup.org

As practice shows, teenagers willingly change their way of life if they are offered a real good alternative. One such alternative is football. Social adaptation through sports has become a successful strategy in many countries because the passion for football has a unique ability to erase boundaries between people. With support for integration programs, sport becomes a means of creating new opportunities for children and teenagers who have undergone tough life trials.

Photo homelessworldcup.org

Street football is a sport in which there is no discrimination based on gender. Football develops respect and trust, team spirit and willpower, self-confidence and the desire to win. For boys and girls who trained and continue to train in the team, playing football has helped them adapt to society, improve their health, but most importantly — it gave them equal satisfaction from their own victory. This is what stays in memory forever, what will support them throughout life when things are tough or even scary. Because they have memories of how, overcoming themselves, they walked towards victory.

Back home, the Ukrainian team brought back the FIFPRO Fair Play Award for their positive sporting attitudes during the tournament.