AUSTRALIAN and Indigenous football will receive valuable exposure overseas with independent body Aussie Rules International's second tour to Africa later this year.
Interest is already strong in ARI's two-week tour to South Africa, Swaziland and Mozambique from November 1.
Pleasingly for ARI, enquiries have come from far and wide with Queensland footballers also looking at securing a spot in the side. The plan is for ARI to take a team of 16 players with four staff.
"The interest has been great so far, with enquiries from Victoria, WA, SA, the Northern Territory and Queensland," the ARI's general manager Brian Clarke said.
"All up, it would cost $5,600 per person, which includes airfares, accommodation, transport, sightseeing, football matches, insurance, visas, playing uniform and travelling uniform."
GAME TIME: Part of the team that played an exhibition match at Maputo in Mozambique at last year's All-Africa Games. Photo: Aussie Rules International
Last year's tour included four young men from Wadeye in remote NT.
That group played exhibition matches at the annual All-Africa Games in the Mozambique capital Maputo.
Many of the players selected were young Aboriginal men in the at risk category, that is, facing issues such as youth crime, substance abuse and poor academic performance.
The tour to Africa, Clarke says, was seen as a great opportunity for these young men to help turn their lives around.
The team travelled to Mozambique and stayed at Maputo and Inhaca Island, at Ezulwini Valley in Swaziland and Johannesburg and Soweto in South Africa where they also visited the world-famous Kruger National Park.
In South Africa, a match was held in Soweto against a team of local young men, followed by junior coaching clinics at a primary school.
While in Soweto the team had the opportunity to visit Nelson Mandela’s house and Hector Peterson Memorial Square, which was named after the first casualty of the Soweto uprising in 1976.
At the Games in Maputo, the Australian and Mozambique teams trained together before their match.
Aussie Rules International's chief aim is to promote and develop Australian Football internationally.
The indepenet and development body acknowledges the AFL's role as both keeper of the code and the world governing body of Australian football.
LET'S PLAY: The opening bounce of the Australia and Mozambique match at the All-Africa Games in Maputo. Photo: Aussie Rules International
* Interested parties can contact ARI via their website (linked just above).
Last Modified on 29/05/2012 10:59