Gabutu claim Eastern Papua Carnival crown

By JAMIE HARO
THE Eastern Papua Carnival pulled off a successful four-week soccer tournament following the conclusion of its final at the Bisini Sports Precinct yesterday with Gabutu beating Utuyagila 1-0 to claim the silverware.
Tournament patron Peter Togs said the carnival started on Nov 18 with 24 men’s and 12 women’s teams registered from 14 clubs for the 2023 season.
“This year’s tournament wasn’t ideal because we had our elections late, once new executives were voted in, we were told we had two-weeks to prepare before the officially kickoff, but we managed to work together as team and pulled through,” he said.
Togs said this year’s tournament was smaller in numbers from last year’s 48 men’s teams and 16 women’s teams as some teams were not able to affiliate before deadline.
“We had 14 clubs who could afford the affiliations to register both a men’ and women’s teams. It was a big contrast that’s why we had enough time to complete our tournament with less number of teams.
“There were some new clubs, while of the old existing clubs did not register this year but hopefully come back prepared in the next season.”
He said this year’ theme ‘Uniting Milne Bay people through football’ was to bring the MB community around Port Moresby to gather.
“We normally have teams from home come to compete in this carnival however due to the time factor we decided to have teams in Port Moresby but the players were from all part of PNG as long as they were full or partially Milne Bay by blood.”
“Also the lesser number of teams in this tournament reduced the spread of quality players with some who compete in the National Soccer League (NSL) player while some are from the Port Moresby Soccer Association competition.
“The idea is to raise the level of football in the community and bring our MB community together,” he added.
Meanwhile, this year’s carnival was sponsored by Tasion Group of Companies and Freeway Motors.