Playing away from home is nothing new for the 17 teams that took part in the All-Ireland Homeless Street Soccer league finals yesterday.
To be eligible all players must either be homeless, in assisted housing or must have been homeless in the past year. The players are drawn from agencies such as the Coolmine Therapeutic Centre, Crosscare, Focus Ireland and asylum-seeker hostels.
Yesterday, the Clondalkin Addiction Support Programme team took the All-Ireland cup, but there was still hope for the other players as the event was used to select a panel of players to represent Ireland in the Homeless World Cup tournament in Edinburgh in July.
Sixteen players will be announced in the coming days. These will be whittled down to eight after they play a team from RTÉ's Fair City at a fundraising match at the Home Farm club in Whitehall, Dublin on May 22nd.
The homeless street soccer league is run by Ireland's Issues magazine.
