The 2010 Harmony Cup is fast approaching, with eight teams running out onto the Whitten Oval this Sunday. Among them will be Greece, Italy, Albania, Indonesia, India-Sri Lanka, Israel, and a team drawn from Melbourne's Lebanese community.

With the withdrawal of Team Africa, the eighth side on the day will be playing under the name "Team Harmony", a combined team including players from all cultural backgrounds, including PNG's former AFL star Mal Michael.

Although Sydney is the Australian city more often associated with Lebanese immigration, the Melbourne Lebanese community has produced a few high-profile members, including footy stars Mil Hanna and Bachar Houli, and previous Victorian state premier Steve Bracks. At a suburban footy level, Lebanese players have made a huge impact and can be found at clubs right across Melbourne.

Coordinating the Team Lebanon is Maan Soufan, who previously played with Lebanon at the 2005 Multicultural Cup. Soufan spoke with WFN about the Lebanese team's preparations.

An official rankings table for the nations playing Australian football has been a long-held dream at worldfootynews.com, although we've maintained in the past that this would be an unofficial system at best and mainly based on conjecture. However, we've recently been sent some ideas for how such a system could work.

WFN reader Campbell Homes has been crunching the numbers and has created a rankings system based solely on actual match data, without resorting to estimation.

The rankings are based on full-scale footy, played under or close to IC rules, dating right back to 1994. In spite of how far back the data goes, the rankings are recalculated after every match played, and adapt to current relative strengths very quickly. Matches that will enter the system in the coming months include the GB vs Denmark test in April, the European Championships in August, the US vs Canada test and as many more as we hear about.

All ranking systems will create plenty of discussion, but Campbell's system is the first that WFN has published based on empirical evidence. The full table and a description of how the ranking system works is available at our World Rankings Page, let the comments begin.

The AFL has received 24 nominations for the 25 player squad for the World XVIII team participating in the AFL NAB Under 16 Championships, to be staged in western Sydney later this year.

Dominating submissions are the Canadians and South Africans, with 11 and 8 young men nominated respectively. Also in the mix are Denmark (3), the United States (2) and England (1). Final details were not yet fixed, but the AFL expects additional names from Ireland, China and multicultural Australia. With rapid growth at senior level in Europe in recent years, hopefully the World XVIII in a few years will also have dozens more youth candidates willing and able to travel Down Under.

The nominations range from 15 to 19 years of age (the two international squads have a wider age eligibility than the Australian state and territory sides). Heights range from 164 to 191 cm. At this stage it does look to be a fairly short squad, given most players are 17 or 18 years old, although this is not likely to be an issue in the otherwise Under 16 tournament; it would however have been a useful advantage to field a taller side.

Eligible multicultural Australians will be trialled in the coming weeks, and all the nominations will be reduced to a squad of 25 by the end of March. Full eligibility criteria listed in earlier story here.

Among the sides running out onto Whitten Oval in this year's Harmony Cup will be Team Israel, who will be hoping to regain the title they won at 2004's inaugural Multicultural Cup.

Although the Australian Jewish community is not often associated with producing star players, it has provided us with such high profile off-field personalities as the late Carlton president Dick Pratt, Melbourne FC's merger saviour Joseph Gutnick, current Bulldogs chief David Smorgon and colourful 80s-era Sydney Swans owner Dr Geoffrey Edelsten.

Fans of international footy will be familiar with the Peres Peace Team, a side of Israeli and Palestinian players that came together for the 2008 International Cup with the support of the Peres Centre for Peace and a number of Australian business supporters. A social Aussie rules scene also exists in Israel, profiled by WFN in the article Footy in Israel - From St Kilda to the Dead Sea way back in 2005.

Coordinating the team this year is Michael Goldberg, a veteran of Israeli social footy and a member of Melbourne's "Shleppers". Goldberg spoke to WFN about the side's preparations.

The Surrey Park Panthers, a club playing in the fourth division of Melbourne's Eastern FL, will this year play host to a new league-within-a-club, aimed at introducing Indian migrants and students to Australian rules football.

Coordinating the project is WFN writer Ash Nugent, who says the competition is both about promoting Australian rules football, as well as building understanding between the Australian and Indian communities. The main target group for recruitment is Melbourne's large Indian student community, who come to Melbourne for tertiary studies after completing secondary school in India.

Initial sessions based around teaching basic skills, then kicking off a competition described as "a serious league but with a strong social element", that will also provide opportunities for players to move into senior football with the Panthers.

The World 18 that will head to Australia for the NAB AFL Under 16s has received a timely boost on two fronts. Recently retired Sydney Swans star Michael O'Loughlin has agreed to coach the inaugural team, having recently coached the Indigenous Boomerangs squad against South Africa. In addition, and no doubt in acknowledgement of the tough battle facing the World side, the AFL has slightly loosened the criteria for selection, in terms of age and opening the door slightly to Australian based immigrants.

When team Italy run out for the Harmony Cup at the Western Bulldogs' home base of Whitten Oval, former Bulldogs champions Danny Del-Re and Tony Liberatore will be among them.

Legendary tagger Liberatore won the Brownlow Medal in 1990 and went on to play 283 games for the Bulldogs before retiring in 2002. Del-Re is best known as Footscray's leading goal kicker in the 1992-93 seasons, kicking 8 goals against Geelong in the 1992 qualifying final. Joining them onfield will be Adam Iacobucci, who played a handful a games for Collingwood in 2005 and 2006.

Acting as mentor and coach for the team will be former Essendon ruckman Steven Alessio, who performed the same role for the team at the 2005 Multicultural Cup.

Team Coordinator Phil Spinella spoke to WFN about their preparations.

A side drawn from Melbourne's Indian and Sri Lankan communities is currently in training for the 2010 Harmony Cup, with around thirty keen players vying for a place in the final squad.

The side is predominantly born-and-bred in Melbourne, although there are a handful of international students also involved. Some of the Melbourne-based Indians who strengthened the Indian side at last year's International Cup will also be in the squad.

While the Indians won't have anyone with the AFL-level experience of some of their Harmony Cup opponents, team coordinator Vishnu Rishi is confident they will be a competitive outfit.

Team GWS, the planned new AFL club for Western Sydney, has put the call out to the public to help decide its name.

To coincide with last night’s historic match between Sydney and Carlton at the club's future home, Blacktown Olympic Park, Team GWS has unveiled its campaign ‘NameTheTeam’ and associated website NameTheTeam. The new club is also looking for advice on its colours.

The website offers suggestions of Giants, Rangers, Pride and Stallions, but also allows visitors to send in their own suggestions. No doubt they'll receive plenty of sarcastic ideas like West Sydney Bogans, but hopefully some create locally inspired possibilities will emerge. Or who knows, maybe one of our international readers will come up with the name of the AFL's 18th club.

Whilst 9-a-side footy has become a widely-used development tool around the world, particularly in the context of Metro Footy in the USA or 9s comps in Europe such as the EU Cup, footy in Australia has largely remained the preserve of 18-a-side purists.

However, there are some signs that Aussies are opening their eyes to the potential of the smaller format game, with the Campbelltown Blues holding a 13-a-side pre-season cup on March 13th.

The Campbelltown AFC, a member of the AFL Sydney's Premier Division, offered entry to all clubs in all divisions of the Sydney suburban league. The reponse exceeded expectations, so much so that they had to turn away some interested clubs.

Games will be played 13-a-side, with 7 interchange, and all other rules as per AFL Sydney AFL competition. Official NSW/ACT AFL umpires will be officiating and the matches will be 2 x 15 minute halves, with a 6 minute halftime break.

The Campbelltown Council have undertaken major works to completely resurface and install a new sprinkler system at the Blues' home ground Monarch Oval, with the club rating the new facilities as the best suburban Aussie Rules ground in Sydney.

For more information, see the article AFL Carnival Test for Upgraded Oval from the Camden Chronicle newspaper.