2010 Homeless World Cup Draw Announced

Neither rain nor poor Portuguese (apparently pairing the word 'Copacabana' with the English or Portuguese for 'beach' wasn't sufficient to direct my taxi driver to discern precisely where it was I wanted to go) were enough to prevent me from making it to one of the most anticipated Homeless World Cup (HWC) moments today: the draw.

In spite of pouring rain, which doesn't quite fit with the picture perfect-ness portrayed in the Rio de Janeiro travel brochures, we gathered on Copacabana Beach to find out which country would be playing which in the initial stages of the groundbreaking event.

Kicked off in 2003, the HWC is an annual competition which uses football to change homeless and marginalised people's lives. This is my third on-site attendance and is no less exciting. 2009 winners Ukraine is here to defend the title, with runner up Portugal sure to appreciate some almost-home soil advantage as they try to go one better than their 2009 second place. Even better, the Women's HWC is returning, after its initial trial in 2008 in Melbourne, and Palestine are fielding their first ever team.

I'll be checking in later in the week with updates, but for now, the groups:

Group A

Brazil (home team)

Italy

Chile

Philippines

Croatia

Group B

Ukraine (2009 winners)

South Africa

USA

Sweden