PNGFA to seek Fifa help

THE Papua New Guinea Football Association (PNGFA) says it will apply for NZ$50,000 (K104,000) from Fifa and the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) as assistance during the Covid-19 pandemic.
PNGFA general secretary Dimirit Mileng said the pandemic had disrupted major football competitions and activities around the world.
He said PNGFA was finalising its application to OFC’s solidarity fund, with each member country eligible to receive NZ$50,000.
“We are grateful to OFC because we couldn’t support some of our staff, especially the volunteers and part-timers who have been helping our activities,” Mileng said.
“In many cases, some (members) of our team actually rely on those weekend activities to earn something for their family.
“Once this is taken away, it’s a struggle.
“We use a lot of Papua New Guinea Sports Foundation-managed facilities to carry out our activities.
“But the shutdown of those facilities (due to the Covid-19 state of emergency) has also compounded our problems with running the activities.
“We can’t be doing anything contrary to the orders issued by the Government because we would not be helping the cause.”
Mileng said PNGFA staff were still receiving their full salaries while scaling down their operations to comply with social distancing measures.
“Currently we are working on a number of things that we sort of put on the shelf — we’ve brought them out and we’re working on those,” he said.
“In terms of staff in the office, we meet twice every week because our public transport has also been down in recent weeks, especially in Port Moresby.”
World governing body Fifa announced last week that each of its 211 member associations would receive US$500,000 (K1.71 million) as well as any remaining entitlements for 2019 and this year.
Meanwhile, Mileng said they were hopeful of resuming coaching and referee courses, and competitions in the second half of the year.