More than 200 students from Islamic schools across Sydney converged on Progress Park in Auburn yesterday to compete for the 2015 Bachar Houli Cup.

The annual event, named after Richmond player Bachar Houli, targets youths from a variety of different nationalities including Lebanese, African, Indian and Pakistani.

Bachar Houli attended the event and talked about his leadership program which engages more than 5000 participants from Islamic schools each year.

The aim of the competition is to encourage Australian Rules participation in Sydney’s west and teach positive life skills such as good sportsmanship and teamwork.

GIANTS midfielder and Australia Post AFL Multicultural Ambassador Stephen Coniglio was proud to support the event.

“This is a great initiative for Islamic schools which seems to be growing each year,” Coniglio said.

“The knowledge of AFL is starting to get better in these communities which is fantastic to see and hopefully that trend will continue.

“When you look at the AFL about two per cent of all players come from multicultural backgrounds so it would be good to get those figures up moving forward."

Fellow Australia Post AFL Multicultural Ambassador Bachar Houli is the first devout Muslim to play AFL, but hopes he won’t be the last.

“This program started four years ago and it’s great to see this competition gain recognition nationally,” Houli said.

“These kids are adopting this great game of AFL and the GIANTS are leading the way in the west which is fantastic to see.

“There’s no better way (than using AFL) out in the west to engage the Islamic community."

The winner of the 2015 Bachar Houli Cup was Unity Grammar College, who narrowly beat Alnoori Islamic School in the Grand Final.

The Most Valuable Player of the tournament was awarded to 15-year-old Moustafa Sattout.