Today we are delighted to help promote the launch of the first ever Virtual World Cup day, hosted by our charity partners at The Homeless World Cup Foundation! This innovative event will look to celebrate the year-round work of the foundation and its Street Football partners, bringing together supporters from around the world to take part in fun challenges and find out more about the great work done this year.

Unfortunately, current events have led to the cancellation of this year’s actual Homeless World Cup, due to be held in Tampere (Finland) from July 5^th. This event usually brings in players and supporters from over 50 countries each year, providing a vital stage for the charity to share its vision of changing lives through the power of football.

In its absence, the Foundation needs everyone’s help to inspire some of the most marginalised in society to change their lives, something especially important at this troubled time.  We at Cooper Software would like to extend an invitation to all in our network to support the Homeless World Cup through their Virtual World Cup Day this July.

How can you help?

The team at The Homeless World Cup Foundation have outlined how you can help, either as a company or individual: “Starting from April 6 and on to July 5, we’re inviting all our supporters to join our call to action by signing up to our Virtual Stadium, donating to the Homeless World Cup Foundation, and sharing a video on social media of themselves doing a little bit of ball skill and nominating friends to do the same”.

Our team are raring to put their football prowess on show, can you match our skills at home? More details can be found on the #KeepTheBallRolling initiative through this link to the HWC Website.

Cooper Software have proudly supported The Homeless World Cup for more than 3 years, both as their official Technology Partner and through nominating them as our preferred charity. So far, we have been able to create a competition management system catering to the Foundation’s unique events, which has been successfully used to run the previous two World Cups and supporting events, in Cardiff, Norway and Mexico City. Our staff have also been in attendance at these tournaments, supporting the team on the ground by providing extra pairs of hands along with any technical support required.

We were looking forward to this event in Finland as another great opportunity to support this fantastic cause, and along with the organisers we were deeply disappointed when the event was cancelled. To try to continue doing what we can to help, we have donated all of the budget we had put aside to support our involvement as a donation. This is an incredibly difficult time for us all, but especially for those in society who are homeless. You too can also donate, by following this link.

From the team at Cooper Software: “The Homeless World Cup Foundation is a remarkable charity using football to help change the lives of so many homeless and disadvantaged people around the world. We are delighted and proud to be associated with this cause and look forward to supporting their efforts to make the inaugural Virtual World Cup Day get off to a flying start, and we look forward to seeing many of you at the Virtual Stadium on July 5^th!”

What is the Homeless World Cup?

The Homeless World Cup Foundation is a unique, pioneering charity which uses football to inspire people who are homeless to change their own lives. Their vision is for a world without homelessness. The Foundation operates through a network of more than 70 Street Football Partners to support grassroots football programmes. They provide a focus for—and celebration of—their year-round activity by organising and delivering an annual, world-class, international football tournament for national teams of men and women who are homeless.

The Homeless World Cup’s mission is to use football to support and inspire people who are homeless to change their own lives; and to change perceptions and attitudes towards people who are experiencing homelessness. When a person who is homeless gets involved in football, they build relationships; they become teammates who learn to trust and share. They have a responsibility to attend training sessions and games, to be on time, and to be prepared to participate. They feel that they are part of something larger than themselves.

More information on the Foundation can be found here: https://homelessworldcup.org/

About Cooper Software

Cooper Software is a leading technology consultancy delivering successful and innovative business change to its clients.

As a systems integration specialist Cooper Software focuses on making its clients’ business systems work harder for them. Whether that’s fitting an ERP system to meet unique business processes, enhancing systems through integration or bespoke mobile applications, or providing round the clock support using specifically developed skills, tools and utilities, Cooper Software has the breadth and depth of technical knowledge to make it work.

Cooper Software is an IFS Business Partner and NetSuite Solution Provider. Since the company was founded in 2005, it has grown to become one of Europe’s largest independent provider of products, consulting services and 24/7 support these ERP platforms. Cooper Software has provided over 1,000 enterprise software solutions for over 200 clients across the globe.