SYDNEY: A windswept pitch over shadowed by grim apartment blocks in inner-city Melbourne is about as far from Europe’s famous football grounds as you can get, both geographically and in terms of footballing glamour.

But the players performing passing drills and running sprints on the un-marked field in the city’s tough Fitzroy area show all the intensity of footballers half a world away preparing for new seasons in the English Premier League and Italy’s Serie A. These players — who have battled problems including alcoholism, mental illness and drug addiction — are gearing up for the Homeless World Cup, to be held in Melbourne this December.

Teams from more than 50 countries will travel to the southern Australian city to vie for the trophy, with squads from as far a field as war-torn Afghanistan, East Timor, Ivory Coast and Scotland, the reigning champions.

At a weekly training session at Fitzroy, the coach of Australia’s Street Socceroos, George Halkias, said the annual event had grown enormously since it was first staged in Austria in 2003.

The Melbourne tournament from December 1-7 is being run by the homeless magazine “The Big Issue” with support from the Victoria state government and corporate sponsors. Venues include Federation Square in the centre of the city, where a temporary grandstand will be built for an event expected to attract 100,000 spectators through the week. “Giving people a chance to represent their country and having crowds cheering them on, it’s a tremendous boost for them,” Halkias said.

The rules of street soccer vary greatly from the regular game. Each team has eight players on the bench, four of whom are on the pitch at any one time. Each half lasts for seven minutes and players can be shown a blue card for foul play, meaning they are suspended from the game for two minutes. The standard red card penalty for serious fouls applies.