By HENRY MORABANG
ELEVEN teams from four soccer associations in New Guinea Island region have confirmed their participation in this year’s NGI Regional Soccer club championship this weekend.
The Nov 29-Dec2 has attracted six men and five women’s team from Bougainville, Kimbe, NBOPL and Kokopo. Manus will not be attending due to rough seas experienced in the last two weeks in NGI region.
NBOPL president John Raka said teams from Bougainville Soccer Federation arrived safely by boat on Sunday despite the very bad weather experienced two weeks ago and is still continuing.
Kokopo/Rabaul will arrive today and Manus is yet to confirm its participation due to the weather. Inside sources information revealed that Manus will not be attending for the same reason.
Bougainville Soccer Federation currently in Kimbe is represented by one men and one women’s team, Kokopo one men’s team and Kimbe Soccer Association two men and two women’s team. Hosts NBPOL Soccer Association also represented by two men and two women teams.
Raka said the technical meeting will be held at the Kimbe Soccer Association club house tomorrow afternoon. All teams’ head of delegation and team managers must attend this meeting.
Tournament regulations and draws and other important information will be released during the meeting.
The games will kick of on Thursday after the opening ceremony. Government representatives will be invited to attend along with the West New Britain Governor
Meanwhile, on the international soccer scene, Reuters reported Sunday that Nigeria and South Africa, who jostle for political and economic supremacy on the African continent, were drawn together in their World Cup qualifying group on Sunday.
Although South Africa, as hosts of the 2010 event, qualify automatically for the finals, they are participating in the preliminaries because they also serve as qualifiers for the 2010 African Nations Cup finals.
Nigeria defeated South Africa 4-0 in their World Cup qualifying debut 15 years ago en route to a first finals appearance in the United States in 1994 but the Super Eagles surprisingly missed out on the last event in Germany.
“There is pressure because we did not make it to the finals in 2006 but I want to believe that that pressure will motivate us to get to the finals,” said Nigeria Football Association president Sani Abdullahi.