Australian football to help refugees

Football Federation Australia has launched a new initiative help with Europe's migrant crisis.

A group of migrants in Rigonce, Slovenia

(AAP) Source: AAP

FFA president David Gallop has announced an initiative to assist those affected by Europe's migrant crisis at a ceremony at Parliament House in Canberra this week.

Dubbed 'Football Cares', Mr Gallop said it was inspired by a similar move by Italian club A-S Roma.

The measure is aimed at assisting humanitarian efforts in Europe through the United Nations refugee agency and Football United - a local not for profit that uses the sport to promote social causes. 

Members of the public will be asked to donate to the international or domestic part of the campaign.

The program will also see assistance provided to the 12,000 Syrian refugees that Australia will be taking in from the start of next year.

"We will be working with Football United to make sure that there are football drop-in centres, that there are coaching clinics and that football gets behind these people as they come into Australia,” he said.

“It's a fantastic effort and it's just one of the ways that football shows what it can do in the community." 

Mr Gallop said football is a universal sport.

"When we recently played Bangladesh in Perth, our team had up to 15 cultural backgrounds just in the Socceroos. It's a sign of that extraordinary diversity that football embraces."

The son of Greek migrants, Socceroos coach Ange Postecoglou says football played a significant role in his life.

"My parents made the pretty gutsy decision - like a lot of migrant parents - to come halfway around the world, they didn't speak the language, they didn't know anyone. I guess initially like all people trying to assimilate in a new country, it was pretty tough for them".

When he was growing up, there were two places of worship on Sunday for the local Greek community.


"Sunday morning was church; Sunday afternoon was the football pitch. My dad wasn't overly religious, so thankfully for me he made the football pitch my sort of avenue to assimilate into this country. For me it played a massive role".

Afghan refugee and Football United ambassador Shegofa Hassani echoed similar sentiments.

"Like all refugees there are many barriers that you face coming to a new country, like language barriers, cultural barriers, but the one that most face is isolation. What I discovered was through football I was able to overcome that barrier. 

"Initially my family wasn't too fond of a female Muslim girl playing football and through Football United I convinced my parents to play football. And over the years I've come a long way. I started off as a participant - eventually I became a youth leader and a coach," she said. 

Meanwhile, the Socceroos' World Cup hopes could go a long way to being decided in the next week.

The Asian champions go into crucial qualifying games this week when they face Kyrgyzstan on Thursday.

Australia currently sits second in Group B with Jordan top of the group.

It follows last month's 2-0 loss to Jordan in the qualifying campaign.

 

 

 


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3 min read

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Updated

By Santilla Chingaipe

Source: SBS



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