Football completes 7s tourney

THE newly-formed Football Federation of PNG completed its inaugural Northern and Southern Conference seven-a-side soccer tournaments on Saturday.
The event was sponsored by Mineral Resource Development Company (MRDC) with K30,000 and was supported by Coca Cola Amatil PNG.
The two-day MRDC 7s started on Friday and were hosted by Lae Football Association at LFA Park in Lae and by NCD Football Association, formerly known as Public Service Soccer Association, in Port Moresby.
FFPNG president John Kapi Natto visited Lae on Friday to officially launch the tournament and close it in Port Moresby on Saturday.
In Lae, Kapi Natto said these (Northern, Southern) tournaments were inaugural tournaments for FFPNG and they wanted to ensure that organised and sanctioned football tournaments reached the rural areas to expose rural talent.
He spoke to over 200 players and team officials who gathered at LFA Park for the start of the tournament on Friday.
He said what was rightfully for the players must be given them and the administrators of football must also get what was for them. He said that he was happy to see Situm, Finschhafen and Bulolo come into the FFPNG fold.
Kapi Natto said interest was being garnered from associations all over the country in places where soccer was the biggest sport played.
He said FFPNG wanted soccer membership to be sanctioned and not restricted to certain parts of the country.
Rural towns Gagidu in Finschhafen and Bulolo, both in Morobe, brought in a men’s team each while Madang and Goroka also brought in two men’s teams.
Kapi Natto said that soccer was also strong in the Highlands region but not given due recognition.
The NGI region, where soccer was once very strong, had been neglected and not allowed into the PNGFA fold because of politics but will now be looked at by FFPNG, he said.
Kapi Natto will be visiting the region in the coming weeks after he visits the Highlands region.’
Unitech (men) and Prima Power (women) are the inaugural seven-a-side champions of the Northern Conference while NCDFA (women’s) and Hekari Team 2 (men’s) are  crowned the Southern Conference champions.