Everton's historic home of Goodison Park will be the first venue outside of Greater London to host matches in the Mental Health World Cup
lione brothers' father holds the Mental Health World Cup trophy in the tournament's first edition in 2012
The Gaglione brothers' father holds the Mental Health World Cup trophy in the tournament's first edition in 2012
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Everton’s historic home of Goodison Park is the venue as the Mental Health World Cup expands outside of the Greater London area for the first time on May 22 and the tournament is already sold out with Scousers rushing to book their places and play football to stand against suicide.
The event is in its 14th year and 2026 will see organisers pass the million-pound mark when it comes to fundraising for mental health charities, but the move to Merseyside represents a major breakthrough. Never has a venue so large or as storied as ‘The Grand Old Lady’ been used for the competition.
Everton signed off at Goodison Park on May 18 last year with a 2-0 win over Southampton after 133 years playing there. Not only was Goodison the first purpose-built football ground in England, it has staged the most English top-flight matches, two FA Cup finals, five World Cup games in 1966, including the semi-final (making it the only English club ground to do so) and was the first ground to be visited by a reigning monarch when King George V went there in 1913.
For founder Giancarlo Gaglione, who organises the competition in his spare time, it’s been a labour of love after he tried to come to terms with a family tragedy.
He told the ECHO: “It started in 2012. Unfortunately, in February of that year I lost my youngest brother Lanfranco to suicide who was just 26 at the time.
“I think for both my older brother Gianpiero and myself, it was a shock, because like a lot of men, he never showed any signs of emotion to us in terms of being depressed. We thought if it could happen to him, it could happen to anyone, and we wanted to work out how we could share this message and shine a light on just what a big issue this is, for men in particular.
“We’d always grown up loving football and because men struggle to talk about these things we loved the idea of finding a way to help them get to somewhere by playing football and combining that with knowledge about mental health and how the tools and the charities are out there to help. We thought that the idea of having a ‘World Cup’ in a day with lots of five-a-side teams was a good way to get hundreds of people on the pitch.”
From humble beginnings, the five-a-side fundraiser has grown dramatically. Giancarlo said: “We ran it in a local park in Tottenham for a few years and it was really successful. A lot of those who were turning up were my brother’s friends though and not a new audience, so we wrote to all the clubs around the UK and got really lucky with Arsenal in the Community.
“Perhaps it was because they found out that we were from Tottenham, but Arsenal offered us a seven-a-side pitch at the Arsenal Hub next to the Emirates Stadium and we ran it there for two years. The moment we connected with Arsenal, it brought in a whole new set of people from across London who started recognising what it was.
Action from the Mental Health World Cup when it was played at Arsenal Hub by the Emirates Stadium
Action from the Mental Health World Cup when it was played at Arsenal Hub by the Emirates Stadium
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“Somebody from Queens Park Rangers attended the event and loved what we were doing. He’d lost his brother-in-law that year to suicide and told us he’d give us the stadium if we could bring it to Loftus Road.
“At that point, we started changing things and taking inspiration from how the London Marathon works. Rather than asking players to pay to take part, we brought in the idea of the players getting sponsored, which expanded the reach even further.
“It started as a 32-team tournament, then 40 and we’re now at a maximum of 48 where we have a whole day of football interspersed with talks from mental health charities and people sharing stories about why they’re taking part.
“Last year, Watford got in touch and asked if we could bring it to Vicarage Road and we had a really successful three days with two at QPR to meet demand and one at Watford, and we managed to raise £300,000.
“We’ve managed to secure four stadiums this year. Along with QPR and Watford, someone from Millwall attended and wanted to bring it to the Den, and of course, Goodison Park.”
Participants in the Mental Health World Cup at Queens Park Rangers' Loftus Road (top) and Watford's Vicarage Road (below)
Participants in the Mental Health World Cup at Queens Park Rangers' Loftus Road (top) and Watford's Vicarage Road (below)
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The tournaments have raised £900,000 since 2012 but this year they will smash the £1million barrier with Giancarlo explaining how the move to include Goodison Park came about.
He said: “For my day job, I work for a firm called Overbury, who are an office construction company. They just recently delivered the executive boxes at Hill Dickinson Stadium, so I used that introduction to ask whether we could bring it to Goodison Park because I wanted to expand it further outside the Greater London area.
“We’ve been spending that past few months mapping out what that looks like and the excitement that surrounds it. We opened the tickets on January 6 and within three days we’d sold out all the fundraising places for the Everton tournament, so it seems there are a lot of people that want to take part at Goodison Park.
“We’re aiming to raise £400,000 this year with £100,000 from each venue. In the past, we’ve just said: ‘Buy a team, raise the money’, but now, for the first time, when teams want to take part, we ask them to fill in an application form explaining why because we want to find out and it’s really inspiring to hear their stories.
“We started raising money for Calm because they were talking about mental health and suicide in a different way, using sport as well as music and comedy to try and tackle the taboo. I felt my youngest brother would connect with that message.
“For the best part of a decade we raised money almost exclusively for Calm, but that’s now opened up to other mental health charities.
“We also want to shine a light on all the great work that Everton in the Community do. It’s very inspiring with things like the People’s Place initiative (a purpose-built mental health and well-being hub) and the free school, so hopefully it’s a win-win for both of us.”
Despite hailing from Tottenham and both his father and elder brother Gianpiero being Spurs fans, Giancarlo admits that there was a secret he kept from Everton staff when he first approached them about bringing the tournament to Goodison Park, but he hopes they won’t hold that against him as he looks towards further expansion in the years ahead.
He said: “It’s really exciting coming to Goodison Park and it took my breath away. I’m actually a Liverpool fan and so was my brother who passed.
“We’re going to park at Stanley Park on the day and you can obviously see Anfield, just a minute away, and it’s all coming together. I’m incredibly proud of how it’s all coming together.
“That’s the idea, there’s clearly a massive fanbase for Everton and Goodison. I think there are big areas around the UK that are struggling with mental health, but I think having events like this is a really good way to see the issue in a more positive way with a celebration of football.
“With football, there’s a link with that macho environment of men who don’t like to talk about things. It’s good to see that the Premier League and mental health have a partnership forum this year, but it’s been a long time in coming and I’m hoping that events like this make it normal to talk about them.
“Looking to the future, I think the potential of the tournament is to expand it around the UK and maybe even Europe. With every stadium there’s an opportunity of around three weeks a year for ‘off season’ when each venue is essentially free.”
Click here for more details about the Mental Health World Cup.