VG Foundation - Winners 2005
Close finish to Unity Cup after weekend of friendship and togetherness
The Unity Cup Festival final came to a exciting conclusion after a weekend of football, friendship and discussion in the Leeds sunshine.
The festival, which took place in July, kicked off on Saturday afternoon with Leeds North MP, Fabian Hamilton, and West Riding County FA chief, Peter Marsden, welcoming the teams of players from displaced communities.
20 teams from Birmingham, Cardiff, Dover, Exeter, Glasgow, Huddersfield, Hull, London, Manchester, Norwich, Sheffield, Southampton, Sunderland and Worthing joined their hosts from Leeds. A team of Roma gypsies from Slovakia flew over thanks to sponsorship from construction company, The Breyer Group.
Support
In the opening ceremony former Bradford City pioneering black player Ces Podd, a young Somali player from Sheffield Wednesday's Youth academy, Mukhtar Mohammed, and former Leeds star, Brendon Ormonsby, offered words of support for the festival and drew the teams into groups.
As the football got into full flow residents of Leeds were treated to some impressive footballing skills whilst refugee musicians played live music from their native countries.
Keeping those unable to make it to the festival updated was Unity Radio 106.6 FM run by youngsters from Roundhay School and members of the local refugee community. Players and special guests at the festival were interviewed live on air in between sets played by local Dj's and sports bulletins.
Winners
Sunday afternoon saw an exciting climax to the festival as finalists VG Foundation, a team of Angolan refugees from Manchester, and the Friends of Birmingham, an Albanian, Kosovan and Kurdish refugee team, stepped forward for a penalty shoot out following a 1 -1 draw at the end of full time.
VG Foundation, who had a former Benfica player in their ranks, won the shoot- out.
In the Unity Shield local Leeds team, Roundhay Moles, beat Sheffield's Albanian Fire while Sunderland Samba International took the Fair Play trophy named after the late Marc Vivien Foe. 
Participants at the festival were keen to offer their congratulations to the winning teams but the loudest applause went to the players of the tournament, Gilberto Gomes, of Unity Cup winners VG Foundation and Sidiqui of Azadi from Exeter, who scored his team's only goal in the tournament over the two days.
More than football
Sawd Ghiliani, who fled to Britain five years seeking refuge from Iran, representing the Fair Play winners, Sunderland Samba, summed up the weekend, "We are all together, communicating with each other and building friendships through playing football."
A Southampton United player, who did not want to be named, added, "Many British people are given false images of asylum seekers. This event may help change some people's views."
