Club clarifies stance over barring in Lae football

PANAMEX president Ronald Ram says he is not happy about his club’s barring after this paper reported that the Lae Football Association (LFA) had disqualified them and LBC Esso from its competition.
It was reported that they had to pay a fine of K5,000 before returning to the association.
“They are talking about our suspension because we went to the Morobe Football Association (MFA) and then came back to LFA,” Ram said.
“They are saying that we are supposed to pay a K5,000 fine, but nothing came from the congress that we were supposed to pay the fine until the election on Sunday.”
He said Panamex joined MFA because LFA was under the Federation Football of Papua New Guinea (FFPNG) and “we wanted to follow the PNG Football Association (PNGFA)”.
“When the matter was sorted out between PNGFA and FFPNG, the associations that were under FFPNG – including LFA – returned to the mother body.
“So we decided to return to LFA.
“That’s the whole reason we moved in the first place.”
A letter, sighted by The National, dated April 24, 2019, said in order to return, the club had to pay its affiliation fee of K1,500 and player registration fees of K10 and K20 for juniors and seniors respectively.
The club was also required to pay refereeing and coaching fees of K50.
“I have raised the matter with PNGFA for them to step in and will be writing an appeal letter to the mother body,” Ram said.
“We have 17 clubs with us and will be getting their presidential signatures to attach with the appeal letter to PNGFA, challenging the legality of our suspension.”
Attempts to get a comment from LFA president Roy Kamen were unsuccessful.