First it was the Socceroos, and now a team of not-so-fit pollies are looking a bit red faced.

Admittedly, expectations were not exactly high when a handful of middle-aged politicians took to the soccer field against a youthful teenage squad on Tuesday morning.

The fulltime score looked a lot better than the Socceroos' 0-4 World Cup debacle against Germany on Sunday.

At the final whistle in Canberra, the scores were locked at one-all, before the pollies lost a penalty shoot-out 4-2.

The friendly was to raise awareness of 1Goal, the FIFA-supported charity that aims to reduce the number of children worldwide who can't have access to education by 2015.

FIFA is using the 2010 World Cup as a platform to promote the charity and will host the Football for Hope tournament in South Africa in early July.

Australia's political team, including Communications Minister Stephen Conroy and Veterans Affairs Minister Alan Griffin, Labor senators Mark Arbib, Belinda Neal and Family First's Steve Fielding, were also joined by Matilda Lydia Williams.

They took on Football United's Hope team, made up of mostly disadvantaged and refugee teenagers, who will soon head for South Africa to take part in the charity tournament.

"Football fanatic" Teresa Yuol, 16, originally from Sudan, had some words of praise for the politicians, saying they certainly "had their own potential".

She hoped the match would help send a message to those in high places that more can be done to improve education for children around the world.

"Football brings everyone together," she told AAP.

She and her teammates will be one of two Australian teams to be involved in the international charity competition.

Parliamentary Secretary for International Development Assistance Bob McMullan said the government was doing its bit to reduce the 72 million children worldwide who don't have access to education.

Through AusAID, the government has doubled its education funding in other countries, he said.

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