Scotland win the World Cup! Really...

Yes, it's true. Here in Copenhagen, Scotland have just won the "Homeless World Cup", beating Poland 9-3 in the final. With Liberia and Denmark taking 3rd and 4th place respectively, the football giants of Brazil, Italy, England and Germany were all found wanting....

The tournament, now in its 5th year, is a street soccer tournament uniting teams of homeless people from around the globe to kick off poverty. The event took place in Copenhagen from 29 July to 4 August and saw 48 teams from Afghanistan (who were excellent!) to Burundi, Brazil and Malawi.

Supported by Nike and UEFA since its inception several world-class football teams support the homeless World Cup teams. England is supported and coached by Manchester United and Spain has links with Real Madrid, Portugal with Benfica.

The Homeless World Cup is significantly transforming lives and communities around the world. The feeling of belonging, the challenge of working in a team, the process of regaining a health-oriented attitude towards life, self esteem and the experience of fun has seen significant change in players. Over 77% of players say it changes their lives forever. They move forwards to find regular employment, come off drugs and alcohol, pursue education, improve their housing, and even play for semi-professional and professional football clubs. It also changes the attitudes of the public towards homeless people who are treated as heroes during the tournament and acknowledged for their courage and determination whilst encouraged and supported in transforming their lives.

Stars including Eric Cantona (complete with a monumental beard) and Danish referee Kim Nielsen (who famously sent off David Beckham in the 1998 World Cup and was booed by the England fans here in Copenhagen!) showed their support by holding training sessions for the players.

I managed to see a few games - Afghanistan beat Italy (!) 4-2 and Holland beat England 10-8 but the most impressive was a 5-4 win by Scotland over Ghana, coming from 4-0 down!

Let's hope Scotland can take this form into the real World Cup in 2010...! (cough)