The Brief

We completed a short film for Street Football Wales covering the women’s team looking to compete at the homeless World Cup. The Homeless World Cup has had a big impact on improving people’s lives. The Street Football Wales homepage have spoken of the positive impact that this had stating that “Our street football partners operate in 420 cities, reaching 100,000 socially excluded and homeless people every year. The Homeless World Cup and its partners have impacted the lives of 1 million socially excluded people around the globe”, from our interviews with those involved it is clear that the scheme has been a massive benefit to all involved improving their belief and confidence.

Street football Wales are all about providing opportunities for those who have undergone difficult times in life and offering a chance for people to be able to switch off and enjoy themselves for part of the week.

The Process

Our short film highlights that it has served as somewhat of a support centre touching on how many have struggled with issues such as mental health issues, homelessness, alcohol and drugs and that street football has offered them a safe space to pursue a passion and that football has become a huge part of their lives. Football has commonly been seen as a way of allowing people to improve mental health while and initiatives such as Street Football Wales have been very welcome for these people.

One of the most powerful things about football compared to most other sports is how accessibility and that’s a big part about why this project has been so successful. Many brands and individuals have looked to do more to bring street football to the world stage. Examples of this have been Nike hosting a range of freestyle hubs and Neymar Jr hosting a five a side tournament in partnership with Red Bull. These events have bought positive attention to street football and gives people from all around the world the opportunity to express themselves through football.

Alongside Yr Egin and UWTSD and financial support from the SPF 'Gwd Thing: Sir Benfro' initiative we created a short film demonstrating the positive impact that Street Football Wales has had on the lives of so many people. We captured some shots of one of the sessions and managed to get interviews with the players and coaches about their experiences participating in this project. It was important that we captured the human factor in these events as they have significantly helped improve people’s lives. This was the key message that we got throughout the video that personal journey of the players was just as important as the football itself.

Street Football Wales have certainly seen an impact from these projects. In a report by the company published on the success of the programme between 2022-2024 they managed to hold 400 women only sessions as well as 575 mixed events and raise £10,000 in donations.

We also managed to promote the Welsh language during this campaign with many of those involved conducting their interviews in Welsh. This was hugely important to us as we place an emphasis on the benefits of the Welsh language and have been able to undertake numerous other projects highlighting the benefits of the Welsh language in the past. We also included Welsh subtitles throughout the video in order to add further appeal to bilingual viewers.

The Result

Us and our partners were very happy with the quality of the film highlighting the personal and sporting touches throughout and getting the message of how impactful street football is on a community. We were also able to produce some other short clips for social media to further showcase the effort that goes into the sessions. This was a film we were very proud to cover.