Regge, Koviro and Borimana win Tufi Cup

THE annual Tufi Cup soccer tournament held its knock-outs and finals over the weekend with Regge United winning the 2011 Tufi Cup beating Daya Stars 3-1 at the Institute of Public Administration field in Port Moresby on Sunday.
In other grand final results Koviro defeated Arifama 2-1 in the women’s division while Borimana beat Bareji 2-1 for the President’s Cup, which is for teams which do not make it past the knock-out phase.
The official kick-off was done by Tufi elder Robin Borojuna a former patrol officer with 40 years of experience.
He was also a pioneer student at the IPA (then the Administrative College) in 1967 and also a college soccer player. He also went to represent the country that same year at the South Pacific Games in New Caledonia.
Borojuna challenged both sides to play hard but fairly and to joy themselves.
With no team a clear favourite for the title last year’s women’s champions Daya Stars did not get to defend their title because of a shortage of experienced players – most of whom have been drafted in the women’s NSL sides.
It was a similar story for the men with Yawata unable to advance past the knock-outs. They were beaten by eventual finalists Arifama.
Tufi Cup president Johnsford Bunaga, who has run the six-week tournament for the past six years, said the games played were of a very good standard and added that the tournament had produced  players who had gone on to represent the country.
Bunaga said the competition had received no sponsorship since its inception in 2000 despite providing players who had gone on to represent PNG.
He said he was proud that for the last 11 years the Tufi and Oro communities in Port Moresby had banded together and basically self-funded their competition without any outside help.