Football Australia to host a Unity Football Festival for Refugee Week

UPDATE: This event has been cancelled due to the growing COVID-19 outbreak in Sydney

Football Australia will host a ‘Unity Football Festival’ later this month in Sydney as part of Australia’s Refugee Week 2021 celebrations.

The event, to be held at Wanderers Football Park in the Western Suburbs of Sydney, will take place on Saturday 26 June from 9am-4pm to promote harmony and togetherness in our community.

The theme for Refugee Week 2021 is ‘Unity’, and the festival is an opportunity for Football Australia to celebrate how our game unites people and cultures from all around the world.

This event, while intended to offer new and old refugees to our country an opportunity to experience what football has to offer, is open to all members of the public to celebrate our united game while highlighting aspects of the refugee experience and helping the broader community to understand what it is like to be a refugee.

The event will feature a mix of football from MiniRoos, to youth football, to senior and Walking Football, while also celebrating the mix of cultures from different foods to experience, all the way to cultural dances and performances.

UPDATE: This event has been cancelled due to the growing COVID-19 outbreak in Sydney

Football Australia CEO James Johnson said the event is a great opportunity for newly arrived and already established refugees to get involved in our game.

“Football Australia is proud to support Refugee Week and play our part in helping it grow as a national celebration each year,” Johnson said. 

Football is the most diverse sport in the Australian sporting landscape – we are a melting pot of 2 million participations represented by over 180 countries from around the world. Many of these communities are from multicultural and CALD backgrounds and have a strong cultural connection to football and use the game as a mechanism to integration into society. 

“I look forward to the event, meeting participants and hearing their stories.”