Simbas FC, an Albury-Wodonga team formed in 2016 and made up of Congolese, Burundian, Nigerian and Togolese players, are the lone regional Victorian side at the event to be staged at Keilor Park Recreation Reserve.

Assistant coach and striker Patrick Sibomana said it will be a big step up for side.

"We've played friendly games with local teams and we had a chance to play some local tournaments, so this is going to be a massive challenge for the boys against other teams, especially the Melbourne teams who have many NPL players," Sibomana said.

"All the guys play locally. Most of them are in AWFA and others are in Murray United, but they're all based in Albury-Wodonga.

"It will also be good for the boys to keep fit so they're not having difficulties with fitness when they come back to their clubs here.

"In Melbourne, there's already a Congolese team there, as well as Nigeria and Togo, so we will be representing Zambia for the purpose of the tournament."

The tournament runs across three weekends with the grand final to be held on Australia Day.

Twenty teams make up four pools of five, with the top two from each group to progress to the knockout stages.

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The Border outfit has been drawn to play in Group A and will come up against Eritrea, Kenya, Zimbabwe and Burundi.

"We haven't seen any of this tournament before so we're not sure how we're going to play because it's a new challenge for us," Sibomana said.

"We're going there to enjoy ourselves and get to know some new people as well.

"We've been training at Willow Park every Friday for the last year and because there's no other teams on the pitch we have space to train every day to keep us fit so we can prepare for the tournament."

Sibomana said the side, coached by former Wodonga Diamonds player Sylva Mwala, has shown huge improvement each year.

"One of the boys from our team had an opportunity through Murray United to have a trial for Melbourne Victory, which is a big success for the region," he said.

"We're proud to empower kids to show their talent and keep improving to help their careers.

"It's great for us to see boys from an African background getting the chance to go to Melbourne Victory for a trial."

Eritrea are the defending champions.

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