The Bankstown City Sports Complex is a large sprawling ground comprising football fields, baseball diamonds, netball courts and cricket pitches. Embracing all of western Sydney’s sporting diversity, the world game takes precedence on Saturday morning for the second running of the Arab Bank Cup.

I arrive early at the ground to meet the President of the Australian Lebanese Football Association (ALFA), Remy Wehbe, who informs me he’s been here setting up since 5am. Remy is a former Lebanese military man, strongly built, with a clean shaven head, jug ears and wide friendly brown eyes. An attentive host, Remy clasps my hand and welcomes me to the club, fetches me coffee, and in between his errands, we talk football. Remy arrived in Australia in 2008 and is the CEO of the Wehbe Group, which amongst other things runs El Telegraph, the local Arabic newspaper. A well known figure within the community, it was Remy who established ALFA and the Arab Bank Cup. “It’s mainly the western Sydney area at the moment, and where Lebanese are involved in clubs,” says Remy. “But because of the Asian Cup 2015, we wanted them to play under their country’s banner.”

For the first time, there are four representative ‘national’ teams participating: Lebanon, Iraq, Palestine and Saudi Arabia. The players are a mix of recent arrivals, young men on student visas and second-generation immigrants. “Sport has always been part of my life since I was a kid, as it is for my kids now,” Remy says. “Soccer is one our passions: we live it, we breathe it, it’s a part of my life and my culture.”

The tournament was supposed to run over two consecutive Saturdays, but wet weather forces all the games, from Under-12s to All Age, to be squeezed into the one day. The morning is foggy and cold, and as the senior teams warm up, it starts to drizzle ominously. On one field, Lebanon are lining up to play Saudi Arabia, but I wander over to the other field to see a match between Iraq and Palestine.

The Iraqi team are a professional looking outfit, kitted out in smart green jerseys with a black, white and red trim. The pan-Arab colours, however, are somewhat offset by the white Real Madrid stockings, complete with the Spanish crown. The Palestinian team are in borrowed kits from Bankstown Sports Club, and in truth, they look far less organised. Iraq play pretty football, knocking it around casually and working to create space for attacking opportunities. They score first, and then again before half-time. The centre-forward for Palestine, who spent much of the first half complaining, walks off the field angrily remonstrating with the referee, and as Iraq extend their lead in the second half, he clashes with an Iraqi player off the ball. It’s one of those classic park football standoffs: first there’s the exchange of views, then there’s the customary chin-to-chin squaring off, then some shoving, and then everyone else gets involved to dilute the situation. “Zip it” screams the centre forward to his opponent as they are separated. “No one is talking to you” responds an Iraqi. “Watch the swearing and just play soccer!” yells a bloke from the sideline. Within minutes calm is restored as the players clear the air, and the focus turns back to football. Iraq end up winning 5-0.

These might be friendly matches, but there is still a healthy competitive edge. “I didn’t want to send them off, you know, because it’s a friendly game,” explains the referee Wissam Abbas. Wissam helped to organise the Palestinian representative team for today. “They are a mix,” he says. “The guys are from Jordan, from the West Bank, I think one or two from the Gaza Strip. You know, with the situation, we are spread everywhere. They actually had four Iraqi players, but because the other team were Iraq national team we decided it was not fair to get them to play against their country.”

Saadi Toma (left) and Ali Mahdi. Saadi is a former coach and player for the Iraq national team. Photograph: Hilal Dawood

Wissam is a handsome man, with deep brown skin, grey stubble and dark eyes. A black Football Federation Australia referees cap covers his bald head and he walks with a slight stoop, but he is broad shouldered and strong. A deep scar runs along the back of his neck where he had a cancer removed, and he is currently receiving chemotherapy for a lymphoma near his throat. He came to Australia in 2004 on a business visa to work as a mechanical engineer, and now has permanent residency with his wife and three children.

“I was born in Lebanon, in a Palestinian refugee camp,” he tells me. “My parents were born in Lebanon and my grandparents migrated from Palestine in 1948, when they declared the Israeli state.” Like many Palestinian families, Wissam’s family remember their village fondly. “Now with the technology and the internet we can actually find pictures of our village in what they call Israel now,” he says.

According to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), there are nearly half a million Palestinian refugees living in Lebanon. Displaced by war, the Palestinians are further marginalised by restrictions on employment and social services in Lebanon. “It’s a hard situation,” says Wissam. “Some were born in Lebanon but they are still treated as refugees. So, we don’t have our country, we don’t have our own state, we can’t go back to West Bank or Gaza. That’s what makes it hard, you know, we are like in the middle of nowhere. We’re not Lebanese, but we can’t be Palestinian.”

Having lived in Australia for almost a decade, and with relatives elsewhere in the world, Wissam believes Australia is “the best country to live in”. He raises his children as Australians, but when they are old enough, he will teach them more about their background. “If we didn’t do this since 1948, if our parents didn’t teach us, our identity would be dissolved,” he says.

Wissam explains that through the Bankstown Sports Club and ALFA he is able to mix with Lebanese Christians, Shi’a Muslims, Croatians, Macedonians, Italians and people from all walks of life. But while football acts as a social adhesive, it is also a tool of resistance.

In January, the Palestinian national team will arrive in Australia to play in the Asian Cup. “We were the last team to qualify,” says Wissam, smiling broadly. “People think we fight with weapons and stones but we can fight with everything. We can fight with soccer, with art, with everything. You can raise your flag here. For me, that’s a win. To come to Australia and raise a Palestinian flag. My wife is already starting to put the flag on the hats for the kids.

“As an Australian to see our government is not declaring Palestine as a state is hard for me. But we try to change it in other ways, and soccer is an example. In the World Cup there was a Palestinian singer, Mohammad Assef, a very young guy who won Arab Idol. For me, that’s another way, for him to go and sing. To play in a tournament like this, people realise we’re Palestinian and we’re no different to any other community.”

During the lunch break between games, the Saudi team keep mostly to themselves, laughing and messing about near the baseball batting cage in the far corner of the field. Many of them are here on scholarships from the government of Saudi Arabia, explains player-manager Abdullah Aldhafeeri. The Lebanese coach brings around a big box of warm Lebanese breads to share, while his players sit with wives and children and smoke shisha. The Iraqi coaches set up two tables and sell plastic-wrapped soccer shirts, and the kids swarm around like moths to a flame, eagerly grabbing at the Bayern Munich, Manchester United, Barcelona and other European club jerseys. “They’re an enterprising lot, these blokes,” observes Dick Phillips, who is seated next to me. Dick has seen Bankstown Sports Club change as new immigrants have arrived during his three decades on the organisation’s committee. “This area is very diverse,” says Dick. “Most of these coaches here now are Lebanese, there’s some Aussies ... When I say Aussies, they’re all Aussies” he adds with a laugh.



Fadi Ghossan poses with his trophy for the golden boot. Photograph: Hilal Dawood

The showpiece is the final between the favourites, Lebanon, and the exciting young Iraqi team. Fadi Ghossan, a former Lebanese international who now lives with his family and works as a carpenter in Lakemba, scored two goals in Lebanon’s win over Saudi Arabia in the earlier game. He now plays in the Over-35s for Banksia Tigers, but Fadi was once a striker for Al-Ansar, who are in the Guinness Book of Records for winning the Lebanese league 11 seasons in a row. “Look, Lebanon is an amateur league to be honest,” Fadi concedes. “There’s no future there. When you finish soccer you have nothing to do, you just sit at home.” After marrying his fiancee in 2004, they decided to move to Australia. “Soccer is our lifeblood. Work, come home, you know how it is here. We play soccer to have fun and to bring our families with us and meet together.”

In a group of people who have left their homelands due to war, dispossession or economic reasons, this is a constant theme. As the Iraqi team warm up, the team manager Ghat Muhana tells me that football is “the only happiness we have for our country”. He describes the joy of watching the Iraq national team win the Asian Cup in 2007. “It was the worst situation in Iraq, but after winning the Asian Cup with all these players from different religions and cultures, it brought us together. The politicians couldn’t do it, the players could.”

The Iraqis, however, cannot replicate their earlier success against the Palestinians in the final. They dominate the possession, but the Lebanese are patient and cunning. After taking an early lead, Lebanon never look back, winning the game 6-2. Fadi scores two and sets up a couple more, and he is awarded the Golden Boot. While there is a clear pan-Arab spirit to the tournament, the final, much like the earlier games, is very competitive. The Iraq coach blows up at the linesman on more than one occasion, and there are niggly fouls and barbs exchanged throughout the match. “That’s just part of the game,” laughs a Lebanese reserve, Ali Mahdi. He is chatting to the Iraqi onlookers, in particular Saadi Toma, a former captain and coach of the Iraqi national team who defected to Australia in 2007 with Sydney FC striker Ali Abbas. ‘Captain Saadi’ is a legend around here. “He coached me for years in Lebanon” says Ali, grabbing hold of Saadi’s hand. “He was a tough coach, but he looked after me and the players off the field as well.” They grin at one another, marvelling at how football has brought them together again in their new country. “Sport is the only thing that can bring human beings together,” says Ali.

The action gets underway. Photograph: Hilal Dawood

The formalities are delivered at the presentation as the consul-general of Lebanon, members of parliament, local councillors and a representative of the Asian Cup are welcomed and sponsors are thanked. “We are genuine about engaging with these communities because we want them to feel part of the Asian Cup and we want to work with them to bring a unique atmosphere to the event,” says the CEO of the Asian Cup Local Organising Committee, Michael Brown. “Supporting events such as the Arab Bank Cup is part of that engagement, but it’s also about supporting the growth of football more broadly and ensuring people who love the game have a door into the sport.” Indeed Remy is one of 150 Asian Cup ambassadors appointed by the Local Organising Committee last year, while a staff member from the Western Sydney Wanderers is here to run a clinic for the kids.

Nearly 12 hours after he arrived at the ground, Remy is still shaking hands with his guests, joking with his friends and making sure everyone feels at home. He’s happy that his son, Carl, scored two goals for Bankstown Sports Stars in a 2-1 win over Birrong Sports FC in the under-13s grand final. “For us we believe that soccer is not about 22 players and two goals,” Remy says during the presentation. “It’s about getting people together from different ethnic and religious backgrounds.” This is a message that he has reinforced throughout the day. Of course, Israel have been excluded from the Asian Football Confederation since the 1970s, but next year Remy hopes to have a team representing Israel at the Arab Bank Cup. “There is still some work to do,” he says, “but we believe that if you cannot get together over soccer, they will never get together.”