Offside!

Copenhagen is as a rule, a pretty friendly sort of town. It opens its doors to some pretty far out cultural events to highlight the plight of many a poor soul and there is always some event going on somewhere.
Most recently, the town centre has been the showcase for a football tournament for homeless people from all over the world, played in the town square on the paving stones outside the town hall. The homeless' own football world cup. (Soccer football, for the american readers.) The Scots took the championship.
Having never been so unfortunate so as to be totally homeless, I have no idea what these people go through, but I am a little impressed by the thought of all these teams of homeless, who had the time and energy to get organised into teams, train, and play football whilst not looking for a place to live. I daresay the whole thing was funded by some charitable organisation as the hotel bill for a week in Denmark is pretty steep, especially if you come from a poor African country, and I daresay the plane ticket costs more than five cents and a couple of coca cola tins. Money well spent? I don't know.

The thing is, that some of these subsidised football playing ambassadors for the homeless have apparently taken a shine to Denmark. Their visas ran out on sunday and they should all have been on their way home yesterday. Not so. Fifteen of them have disappeared into the Danish countryside. Or Copenhagens streets. No one is quite sure yet. The police are looking for them still.
The fifteen players are from Burundi (7), Liberia (3), Cameroun (4) and Afghanistan (1). I daresay they have been talking with their homeless Danish counterparts and have come to the conclusion, that is probably more lucrative to be homeless in Denmark than it is back home.

It may be time to redefine the offside rule.

Especially for the homeless footballers.