SCHOOL SOCCER Kokopo will send two junior teams – Under 13 and Under 14 - to Canberra, Australia, to participate in the Australian National Junior Futsal Championships, a seven-a-side soccer tournament, next year.
This is following an open invitation by the Football Federation of Australia (FFA) to PNG and the other Pacific Island Countries to participate in their Junior Futsal Tournament which will be held on Jan 7-11.
This is the first time PNG will be represented at school soccer level at the National Junior Futsal Championships in Australia. Early this year, a Bougainville team was selected to attend the soccer festival in France while PNG participated in the soccer destival in Port Moresby.
Kokopo school soccer director Mary Mahni said that Papua New Guinea Football Association (PNGFA) has endorsed the two teams to travel to Australia to take part in this Australian Championships.
She said they are hosting a corporate dinner this Saturday as part of their fundraising activities for the trip. She called on business houses to support them and be part of it.
She said they have raised K50,000 so far through fundraising activities. It was the parents that worked hard to raise this money, she added.
They have secured a major sponsor who will be officially announced when the teams are about to travel. Tropical Island Plants Limited, a family company from the region, has been supportive to Kokopo School soccer and is one of the sponsors of the trip.
The travelling delegation of 27 will leave PNG on Jan 4.
“It is Kokopo’s first time to go out of the country to participate in an international tournament and we are very proud and happy to go,” Manhi said.
She said the players are coming from the Kokopo School Soccer elite development programme, “and we believe they will do well in the Australian junior championships”.
“I want my juniors to experience the style of football played outside our region and the country so that they can come back and play confidently in our competitions in PNG,” she said.
She said the organising committee in Australia was pleased to take them on board and waived the A$450 (K1,125) team nomination fees for the two Kokopo teams. She said she was working closely with the Australian organising committee to bring her teams to Canberra.
She thanked those who supported the two teams to raise funds for the Canberra trip.