Liverpool Homeless Football Club are delighted to reveal that Becca Mushrow & Jessica Lomax have been selected to represent England at this year’s Homeless World Cup in Mexico next month!
The Homeless World Cup is an international charity that organises an annual football tournament in a different destination each year. It is a great opportunity to bring together charities from all over the world that all use football to help bring about social change. This year it is being hosted by Mexico City and there will be 62 teams representing 54 different countries.
This year is the first time that England will have a Women’s team as well as a Men’s. The selection for both squads was organised by the Homeless FA and the process began way back in June this year. 
LHFC have always worked closely with the Homeless World Cup and have been successful in previous years in helping to form the national squads. This year LHFC were delighted to assist in the new selection process. The club organised an application day where LHFC staff were on hand to help players to fill out the initial application forms.
Training Camps
On the strength of their applications, we were proud to see that seven of our men were selected to attend the Homeless FA’s training camps at Manchester United and no less than 19 women were selected to join the Homeless FA’s training camp with Everton.
The Training Camps at Manchester United and Everton were a great success and LHFC were delighted to see 26 of our players completing a week long experience at these premier league football clubs. The weeklong training camp consisted of training sessions, tours of the stadiums and the completion of a sports leadership qualification.
LHFC’s Sean Lennon said “I’ve had a fantastic time, what an experience?! and i’d like to thank LHFC for all their support in making it happen”. Sean (in action below; tipping over a shot at Manchester United’s Cliff Training ground) has not only completed his sports leadership award but is now doing a GNVQ in plumbing thanks to LHFC & Everton in the Community.
Finals Day
After the training camps, the Homeless FA had to narrow the field down to a final 30 players to attend a ‘finals day’ at Manchester United’s Carrington Training Ground. LHFC were once again well represented. Les Bjelland (pictured below) was in the running to be the England goalkeeper and 8 girls were also in contention for a place in the Women’s Team (pictured above; Michaela Otoole, Rebecca Mushrow, Lisa Smith, Marie Duffy, Jessica Lomax, Marie Cherry, Jemma Mckeown & Kim Green).
The finals day was another fantastic experience for all the players. Everyone at LHFC was so proud that they had all made it this far – down to the last 60 in the country!
Chairman John Finnigan proudly told all the players that through their commitment and behaviour; every one of them had been a credit to the club and a credit to themselves. He went on to add that “what they have all achieved is incredible and is only the start. They should all take this as a massive confidence boost and aim for the stars”.
LHFC are happy to reveal that Jessica Lomax and Becca Mushrow were both successful and have been asked to represent the England Women’s Team in Mexico next month. We would like to congratulate Jess & Becca, wishing them all the best for the next step in their adventure! 
We would also like to congratulate all of our players who were absolutely magnificent throughout the whole selection process! Keep your chins up and we hope to see you back involved very soon!
Stay tuned for more information about future LHFC activities and updates on Jess & Becca!