Sunday 23 June saw a different kind of football match take place at Hawker Football Centre. Capital Football, in partnership with Reclink Australia and Amnesty International Australia, were proud to host the first Refugee Football Cup in the ACT.

The pilot for this annual game, taking place at Hawker Football Centre, saw two teams take to the synthetic field at Hawker and compete for the cup, being members of the Palestinian Community up against MARSS All Stars (Migrant and Refugee Settlement Services).

The mission of the game was to explore the power of football in mobilizing communities to build solidarity in advocating for refugee and humanitarian programs.

“In partnership with Amnesty International and Capital Football, the inaugural Refugee Week Football Cup was a massive success,” said Sam Roestbakken from Reclink Australia.

“Together, we were able to make an impact and bring awareness to refugee and migrant programs in Australia.

“We hope to continue promoting inclusivity and empowerment through more initiatives like this one,” said Roestbakken.

This game brought together communities affected by crisis and forced displacement and other stakeholders to raise awareness on refugee rights, with the aim to work towards changing the hearts and minds of Australians to increase our humanitarian intake.

” This is a great iniative that we are excited to be a part of. We are looking forward to working with Reclink and Amnesty again in the future and further promoting this cause,” said Dylan Deep-Jones, Club Development Manager at Capital Football.

Through an ongoing collaboration between Amnesty, Reclink and Capital Football, the idea is to leverage the power of football in building solidarity and community support by mobilizing communities to advocate for refugees and asylum seekers to rebuild their lives safely in Australia.

The hope is that this game will not only create an annual event but will also highlight a need for ongoing sports programming for Refugee and Migrant communities in the ACT.