The sponsorship agreement was signed yesterday between School Soccer Port Moresby and Parmalat Australia makers of Pauls brand of dairy products.
The Australian company’s export manager David Weber said they looked forward to working with the SSPOM Association to continue to develop and improve school soccer.
Details on the format of the sponsorship was not revealed.
Weber noted that SSPOM, being part of the OFC (Oceana Football Confederation) and FIFA (the International governing body of football), has made enormous strides in increasing awareness of soccer in Port Moresby over the years to its current strength of 100-plus teams.
School Soccer representative Richard Supo said School Soccer Port Moresby has football programmes that are aligned in principle with Oceania Football Confederation’s Kids Fun Football and Football Federation Australia programmes.
“This year’s football programme is based on the age of the participant in relation to the three phases of a player’s development.”
“The first phase is for five to eight-year—olds are based on technical skills and the third one for 12-year-old children and above is based on the tactical aspects of the game.”
The number of players on the field varies according to age to allow more game time for players, which hopefully will result in a child touching the ball more during the coarse of the game.
He said with Paul’s Milk on board as the major sponsor, the 2008 promises to be our best season to date. The school soccer competition will kick off in March and will run for 15 weekends before the finals on June 28.
Supo said part of the youth development programme with the Oceania Football Confederation takes place in May when School Soccer sends an Under 12 team to the OFC Under 12 championships in Noumea, New Caledonia.
School Soccer has chosen a draft training squad from preseason games already. But final selections will be made during the course of the season ensuring only the most skilful players are sent to represent PNG.
“Our football programme is designed to be fair, consistent with emphasis on individual player skill development and we trust that all participating schools will embrace the association’s pathway,” he said.
He said that the registrations process for school teams was paramount and must be completed by this week.
Information kits have been sent to schools so that all participants would be aware of entry requirements, he said.