The Police Multicultural Friendship Games “Footy with the Fuzz” on Sunday, 10 October culminated with exciting wins by the African Youth of WA men’s team and the Croatian women’s team.

About a thousand people attended the event at Langley Park in Perth, which was co-organised by the WA Police State Security Investigation Group and Football West, in partnership with WA Police’s Metropolitan Districts.

The day was deemed a resounding success and a fantastic opportunity for the police and the culturally and linguistically diverse (CaLD) communities of Perth to come together and build positive relationships through the universal language of sport.

A total of 32 male and female teams participated in the event, including one male and one female team representing WA Police. Teams represented numerous regions and cultures around the world and included newcomers for El Salvador, Katanning Mosque, Shalom Assembly African Church and Croatia.

Referees recognised Said Alghatani from the Saudi Arabia men’s team and Susan Chout from the South Africa women’s team as Best Players. The Golden Boot was awarded to both James Kunda from the men’s African Youth of WA team and Katarina Jukic from the Croatian women’s team for their highest scores. The Somalia men’s team was awarded the Community Award for their best collective sportsmanship of the day and El Salvador was awarded the best newcomer award.

Food was kindly prepared by Little Lebanon and enjoyed by all attendees. Spectators were entertained by a DJ, African drummers, “Dununba”, Croatian Folkloric group, “Zagreb” and the WA Police Pipe Band. The WA Police Recruiting Branch and Defence Force Recruiting set up information stalls and reported an enthusiastic interest by members of the CaLD communities in taking up a career with WA Police and the Defence Force.

Imam Burhaan Mehter from the Thornlie Mosque spoke at the games and encouraged a message of peace, friendship, harmony and unity within our community of different cultures, religions and races.

Other notable attendees at the games included the Minister for Local Government; Heritage; Citizenship and Multicultural Interests; the Hon. John Castrilli MLA, the Hon. Liz Behjat MLC, Chairman of Football West Kevin Campbell, Deputy Commissioner of Police Chris Dawson APM, Assistant Commissioner Duane Bell, Security Operations Superintendent John Brandham and Metropolitan Region Superintendent Kellie Properjohn APM.