Nigeria Content Online

The choice of
Arsenal football club manager Arsène Wenger as the President of the
Paris 2011 Homeless World Cup Local Organising Committee has been
applauded by Nigeria’s representative body at the annual football event.

Yomi Kuku,
Executive Director of Search and Groom – youth for development centre,
official selectors of Nigeria’s National street soccer team to the
Homeless World Cup, has sent a letter of congratulation to Homeless
World Cup President, Mel Young on the choice of Wenger.

In the e-mail message to Mel Young, Kuku said:

“This is a result
of the profound commitment by you, the HWC team in Edinburgh, the
Homeless World Cup movement and its global individual and commercial
partners as a whole, the enthusiasm and beliefs that we all share,
bringing hope to humanity that it is a world of possibilities, if we
all strive collectively to make it habitable.

“We are most happy
with the choice of Arsene Wenger, the legend, from the Gunners’ empire
and the support from football greats such as Lillian Thuram and
Emmanuel Petit.

“We at Search and
Groom (Board and Management) share in this joy with our friends and
colleagues in Paris, still one year away from bringing us to the Eiffel
Tower, working so hard and bringing the positive signs to our
doorsteps”

Wenger’s belief

Wenger joins former
professional footballers; Emmanuel Petit and Lilian Thuram, as special
supporters of the Paris 2011 Homeless World Cup.

While accepting this new role, Wenger promised to put in his best into the tournament and spoke on the goals of the tournament.

“The Paris 2011
Homeless World Cup will bring together different national teams made up
of homeless players, organised by charities who help the homeless all
year round. What is important for a guy who is homeless is to give him
a target again in life, for him to know that when he gets up he has
training. He takes a shower, has lunch and knows that he has training
again the next morning,” he said.

The tournament has
also provided an opportunity for young footballers. Early this month,
English club Manchester United paid £7.4m to sign Portuguese player
Bebe, who was raised in an orphanage after spending part of his
childhood on the streets and has represented Portugal in the Homeless
World Cup.

Beating homelessness through football

The Homeless World
Cup is an annual world class, international football tournament
inspiring 64 national grass roots football projects and over 30,000
homeless players a year to change their lives: over 70 per cent change
for the better.

The 8th edition of
the tournament comes up in Rio 2010 from September 19-26, 2010 at
Copacabana Beach, Rio, Brazil before the baton is handed to the Paris
2011 Homeless World Cup holding from August 19 – 29.

The Homeless World
Cup is supported by Nike, United Nations, UEFA, Eric Cantona and
international footballers Rio Ferdinand and Didier Drogba.