Kapi-Natto, Chung need to settle differences for the good of the game

WHILE there is an ugly tussle going on between two camps within the football administrators in the country, there is an important event taking place outside the country at the OFC Champions League tournament.
PNG is being represented by current national champions Lae City Dwellers and Madang Fox FC.
Lae City Dwellers have experienced the level of football at the OFC level from participating last year but Madang Fox FC have been thrust into the foray in place of suspended Hekari United.
Some football supporters will see Madang’s situation as both good and no so good. This is because they were not prepared and ready to be there at the first place.
Hekari United was the other team which qualified to represent PNG this year together with Lae City Dwellers.
The good side to Madang being there is that by competing against top players from around the Oceania region their players will gain the much needed exposure to improve their game when they return.
Unfortunately, because of lack of much needed match practice at the top level Madang FC has got a huge task to win games at such level compounded by the fact that they were thrown into the tournament at short notice.
The result of their first game against Tahiti’s AS Central was not so surprising to many followers of the sport in this country.
Lae City Dwellers are also in a similar situation with Madang Fox FC with lack of match practice with top opponents before the tournament.
Nevertheless, all is not lost and we wish both teams all the best in their upcoming matches.
We hope they do not get thrashed again which would be an embarrassment for PNGFA and the country.
The PNGFA president should share some blame for his uncanny tactics to penalize his opponents and take revenge at all costs to hold onto power at the cost of the game itself.
PNG’s champion team Hekari was the victim of this football politics.
Prior to Madang being allowed to represent PNG our hope was with Hekari UFC going by their record in this tournament in the past, which they won in 2010.
Now we will wait and hope for the best from our two representative teams.
Finally, we call on the two factions led by John Kapi-Natto and David Chung to help resolve this issue and put to rest this conflict for the greater good of the game in PNG.

Futbol Sapota
NCD