World Footy News

The AFL created some international good will last Tuesday just before the opening of the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne. The AFL has jumped on the bandwagon of the Cypriot team. AFL CEO Andrew Demetriou is of Greek-Cypriot background with his father migrating from the village of Kili to Melbourne in 1951. It was here that he met his wife who had migrated separately from Cyprus. Demetriou played 103 games for North Melbourne and 3 games for Hawthorn in the VFL.

Demetriou and other prominent identities of Cypriot background, Olympic aerial skier Lydia Ierodiaconou, Melbourne Major Events chief Peter Abraam and Victorian Minister for Energy Industries and Resources Theo Theophanous, met with the Cyprus team on Tuesday, the day before the Commonwealth Games opening ceremony. The 43 member squad walked along the waterfront at Docklands near AFL House, kicked a footy with Demetriou and donned various AFL jumpers.

We hope that this does not go unnoticed back in Cyprus and before too long we see another addition to the footy scene which is steadily growing in Europe.