"THE HOMELESS WORLD CUP WAS A LIFELINE FOR ME"

A few days before Crystal Palace's visit to Norway, the country hosted a life-changing competition like no other

- Words Ed McCambridge

David Duke knows better than most people how quickly life can spin out of control. The Glaswegian had a girlfriend, a steady bar job and an apartment in his hometown, when some unexpected news changed everything.

“My father suddenly passed away,” he tells FFT. “He’d had his problems with drinking, but it still came out of the blue. Mentally, I just didn’t know how to deal with that.” Without any other significant family to turn to and still in his early 20s, things soon spiralled. “I began to drink,” he winces. “I shut myself away and was struggling hugely. I started not turning up for work. I lost my friends, my job, my relationship, my home and I was on the streets pretty quickly.”

Duke spent a few months living rough around Glasgow before he was offered a place in temporary accommodation, as part of a council-led scheme to help young homeless people back on their feet. It was there he saw an advert that changed his life. “There was a copy of the Big Issue and an advert calling for trialists for Scotland’s team for the 2004 Homeless World Cup,” he says. “Until 16, I’d been captain of my school and various clubs, so it stirred something in me. I saw it as a lifeline.”

The Homeless World Cup had partly been the brainchild of Mel Young, who co-founded the Big Issue in Scotland and persuaded other global street paper franchises to form teams for a football tournament that could shine a light on social issues. The inaugural event took place in Graz, Austria, in 2003, where 18 countries played small-sided games. A second edition was set up in Sweden the following summer.