AFL legend Ron Barassi, a renowned ambassador for multiculturalism, presented the inaugural Multicultural Australian Rules Football Cup to Israel on Sunday after the team routed Samoa in the final by seven goals.

In a dominating performance, Israel beat Croatia and Lebanon in the pool matches before meeting Samoa, the winner of pool B, in the final at Skinner Reserve in Braybrook.

Captain Nick Gold and coach Mark Segal accepted the cup. The ‘Israeli’ team was made up of members of the local Jewish community, including Ajax footballers and religious players who cannot play on Saturdays.

The highlight of the day was the Israel-Lebanon clash; the two teams were deliberately pooled against each other in an effort to promote the spirit of the day. Israel proved far too strong in the end, winning 4.5 (29) to 1.2 (8), in an incident-free encounter.

Israel vice-captain Dion Epstein said: “It was an incredible honour to represent Israel and do the country proud. Singing Hatikvah before an Aussie Rules game was just inspiring.”

TheY may not have the paperwork, but a group of asylum seekers will prove themselves True Blue today by taking Australian Football to heart.

The 14 refugees will take the field in the Australian Rules Multicultural Cup as part of a team known as The UN, one of the eight in the competition that attracts players from throughout the world.

Several Aboriginal footballers will play with the asylum seekers' team, which has adopted the motto "Harmony And Equality For All".

Star forward for The UN is Mohammed Amerdeen, 33, who said he had seen games of AFL on television in his homeland of Sri Lanka.

"I have never actually kicked or marked an Aussie Rules ball before this week though. None of us have," he said.

"We have members from Iraq, Afghanistan, East Africa, Sri Lanka and Nepal.

"That is why we thought The UN was a good name for us."

Perhaps doing his chances of winning a permanent visa to stay in Australia no good at all, Amerdeen confessed he was a "one eyed Collingwood supporter".

"I like that team a lot," he said. "I will stick with them no matter," he said.

"I like Aussie Rules a lot. It is very physical."

He said The UN players would find much vocal support from their combined families and communities who planned to attend today's matches.

The multinational Aussie Rules side has the support of JAS, an alliance of more than 30 welfare and community organisations working with refugees and asylum seekers.

The action takes place today from 10am at Skinner Reserve, Churchill Ave, Braybrook.

Talk about traditional rivals! Tomorrow at 2pm at Braybrook’s Skinner Reserve, Israel takes on Lebanon. Thankfully, it will be in a game of Aussie rules. It’s all part of the inaugural Australian Football Multicultural Cup. Eight teams will take part – representing Australian Aborigines, Croatia, Israel, Lebanon, Samoa, Tonga, Vietnam and the United Nations team, which is made up of asylum seekers from nin countries. The aim is to celebrate Melbourne’s ethnic diversity and harmony and use Australia’s only indigenous sport, Aussie rules, to break down cultural and ethnic barriers. Each team will play two matches of two 20-minute halves with the top two playing in the grand final at 5pm. Ron Barassi will present the winner with the inaugural Multicultural Cup.

When a footy team has players from nine different countries, you would think they have pretty much got it all.

But a team of asylum seekers that will play in March is missing one important thing – a jumper.

The team, calling itself the United Nations, will play in the Australian Football Multicultural Cup at the Whitten Oval on March 21.

The competition will feature eight teams representing Melbourne’s ethnic communities, and the winner will receive the Multicultural Cup from Ron Barassi.

The United Nations team is being assembled by the Hotham Mission Asylum Seeker Project.

It is showing plenty of enthusiasm to learn the finer points of Aussie rules – several members were spotted at Arden St recently honing their skills.

The team is hoping a sponsor will come forward to help with uniforms, but there’s no word whether they’ll be sticking to the UN’s traditional blue and white colours.

Aboriginal Australian Rules suburban and/or community footballers have been invited to form a team to compete at the inaugural Australian Football Multicultural Cup, which will be held in Melbourne on Harmony Day in March.

The Multicultural Cup is the brainchild of the International Australian Football Council (IAFC), whose mandate is to spread and foster the game internationally. The tournament in March, it says, is to celebrate Melbourne’s diversity and to use Australian football – as Australia’s only home-grown sport – to break down cultural and ethnic barriers.

The organisation’s Brian Clarke told the Koori Mail that the IAFC was keen to have an Aboriginal side play for the Cup and want a team to nominate.

"The emphasis for the Multicultural Cup is one of fun, it’s all about breaking down the barriers and having some fun in the process. We would love to have an Aboriginal side compete in the Cup," he said.

Clarke is expecting eight to 12 other teams to nominate and says the criteria for player eligibility are that a player was born in the country, or has a parent or granparent born in the country, for which he wants to play.

Each team will have their respective national anthem played prior to their games and Clarke said the IAFC will seek the correct protocol with the Aboriginal team as to their preference on this issue.

The IAFC also hopes to have two all-Aboriginal sides playing exhibition matches at the next All Africa Games in 2007 – set down to be held in Algeria – as a way to promote both the game and Indigenous Australians. The IAFC had hoped for an exhibition match to be played at the Games in Nigeria this year but decided against it because of security concerns.