Sport
16 November, 2024
Kicking goals for diversity
THE inaugural multicultural carnival Q-League gathered dozens of Asian and African football players across Cairns and Townsville for a weekend of football, sportsmanship and friendship.
Endeavour Park was host to exciting matches last weekend (November 9-10) when Football Queensland Far North and Gulf’s first Q-League brought together five teams of multicultural backgrounds for a football carnival looking to promote sport and connection in the North Queensland community.
The teams Centro FC from Townsville (whose players are from Central African Republic), FNQ Red Army from Cairns (which brings Congolese players together), FNQ LAFA FC from Cairns (with players from the Nepalese and Bhutanese community), Libaah FC from Townsville (a team of Somali players) and NQ Chad United Eagles from Townsville (with members from Chad) disputed the championship last Saturday and Sunday where Centro FC became the first Q-League champions.
Libaah FC defeated NQ Chad United in the semifinal 4-2, and Centro FC defeated FNQ Red Army FC 2-0. The champions were Centro FC who finished second on the ladder but came through to win the grand final 4-1.
Centro FC’s co-captain Ali Makhacoum said they were proud to have become the first champions of the Cairns’ Q-League.
“It’s our first time getting up to Cairns and everything was fantastic, Football Queensland did a great job, we’re excited for the next one,” he said.
“We won the competition, we got to finals against Libaah FC which is another team from Townsville.
“We played like four matches and conceded only two goals and then we won the finals 4-1 against Libaah FC.”
Mr Makhacoum said events like the Q-League allowed the young players to enjoy sport in a stress-free environment and get to know other migrant young athletes.
“We have approximately 22 players from ages 17-28 from Central Africa Republic. We started migrating to Australia in 2018, we started participating in AFCON tournaments in Townsville, so we officially formed a team in 2020,” he said.
“There should be more tournaments like this because they really help our youth. We have a lot of young players, they keep growing and they’re enjoying football and the only way for us to know each other more is through events like this,” he said.
“After the matches everybody got to know each other, congratulate them on their goals their players and we just stuck together like a family. It was perfect.
“We need to organise more events like this where the kids can have fun with no stress, so we’re looking forward to participating next year.”
After the success of the first Q-League multicultural carnival Football Queensland Far North and Gulf are hoping to turn the event into an annual carnival.
