Middlesbrough hosts northern trials for England’s next Homeless World Cup team

Middlesbrough has hosted the northern selection trials for the England team that will compete at the next Homeless World Cup, bringing nine teams together at Middlesbrough FC Foundation’s new Southlands facility.

It was the second year running that the Foundation had hosted the northern trials and the first time the event had been staged at Southlands. MFC Foundation said these were the only England trials held outside London, with teams travelling from across the North, including as far away as Liverpool.

Local teams among the group winners

The day was organised around three competitive groups. Social Inclusion Through Sport B from Newcastle, Recovery Connections Middlesbrough and Recovery Connections Hartlepool finished as the three group winners.

The Homeless World Cup uses football as part of a wider programme of social connection and opportunity for people who have experienced homelessness or related forms of exclusion. Street Soccer is involved in organising the England team and worked with the Foundation on the Middlesbrough trials.

In feedback shared by MFC Foundation, a Street Soccer representative praised the welcome and support given to players throughout the day. The Foundation’s own account places as much emphasis on the atmosphere around the matches as the results, describing an event where participants were encouraged and able to take part without being reduced to the circumstances that brought them into the programme.

Football as a route back into a team

That distinction matters. Coverage of homelessness can too easily turn people into case studies rather than players, coaches, colleagues or competitors. The trials were competitive and selection mattered, but the event also created a space where people could simply be part of a football day.

Middlesbrough and Hartlepool both having group-winning teams gives the Tees Valley a strong local thread in the northern trials. It also reflects a broader network of organisations using sport to support recovery, confidence and social inclusion across the region.

The next stage will be the process of shaping the England squad for the Homeless World Cup. Not everyone who took part in Middlesbrough will make that team, but selection is only one measure of the day’s value. For many participants, getting onto the pitch, joining a team and travelling to an event can be significant progress in itself.

For the new Southlands facility, the trials also offered an early example of what a community sports hub can host beyond conventional fixtures. A national selection event arrived in Middlesbrough, local teams performed strongly, and nine groups of players left having been part of something bigger than a single match.