ASFA - Australian Somali Football Championships 2011 - Extended Version

Highlights of the ASFA Football Championship Cup 2011 Melbourne
Australia.
It was a day for the underdogs as North Melbourne-Flemington fought back from a 2-1 deficit and being reduced to 10 men to defeat defending champions Heidelberg 5-2 in front of 1500 screaming fans in the Final of the 2nd annual Australian Somali Football Championships.

The event took place over 6 days from December 24-30, 2011 across 3 venues, with qualifiers held at Debney's Park, Flemington and Darebin International Sports Centre and the finals at JJ Holland Park in Kensington, Melbourne.

This year's event saw the number of teams grow from 8 to12 teams and featured 12 Australasian teams including 7 teams from across Melbourne (Flemington/North Melbourne, Heidelberg, Carlton, Werribee, Western Stars (Brimbank), Collingwood, Darebin) interstate teams from Perth, Adelaide, Sydney, Brisbane and a team representing New Zealand.

The event also featured Somali entertainment from Liban Aden (Somali Idol), Super Khalid (Scandinavian Somali Superstar) and spectacular football skills from players drawn from Horn of African refugee communities across Australia including Somali, Ethiopian, South Sudanese, Eritrean, Oromo and Kenyan.

Third place in the tournament went to Carlton who defeated Sydney on penalties after their bronze medal game ended in a 1-1 draw.

In the individual honours, Carlton's Sami Nour won the tournament MVP award whilst Heidelberg's Abdirahman "HD" Ahmed and Sydney's Yaw Boateng shared the Golden Boot Award with 7 goals each. North Melbourne-Flemington's Amar Abdulgader won the goalkeeper of the tournament. 

The final of the Under 16 Australian Somali Football Association tournament was played as the curtain raiser of the men's final and in a thriller Flemington defeated Kensington 2-1.

Over 5000 people attended the tournament which was run by 80 volunteers and the 10 person Australian Somali Football Association Committee led by President Ahmed Dini who recently won the Victorian Local Hero 2012 of the Australian of the Year Awards.    • Ahmed Dini - People of Australia amba...  

Ahmed Dini was also recently appointed as one of 40 People of Australia Ambassadors -    • Ahmed Dini - People of Australia amba...  

In November 2011 the Australian Somali Football Association won the Community Award at the National Multicultural Marketing Awards for the Australian Somali Football Championships - http://www.crc.nsw.gov.au/Awards__and...

Well done ASFA and a big thank you to Madaale productions!!