School soccer benefits from funding

PORT Moresby Schools Football Association for the first time received support from the government.
NCD Governor Powes Parkop committed K50,000 to SFA while announcing the K100,000 backing of the Port Moresby Soccer Association Premier League recently.
SFA chairman John Mogi, pictured, acknowledged Parkop’s generosity saying the money would go to helping them with their plans.
“It’s great to see our leaders support our youth because that’s our future and that’s where we should be investing money,” Mogi said.
“Governor Parkop understands that school soccer has a pathway and that’s why he has thrown his support to school soccer.”
SFA has three main components which is the schools competition, the academy and the National Soccer League franchise (the Southern Strikers FC).
Mogi said the money would be utilised within these components.
Meanwhile, school soccer’s major challenge is the cost of hiring of venues for competition.
“Our school’s competition is struggling with venues and we’ve been spending a lot of money on hiring venues,” he said.
“Because we spend so much on hiring venues, we spend less on training programmes for our children.
“I urge the National Sports Trust Limited to consider our youth and reduce cost not only for us (SFA) but other sporting codes that focus on youths,” Mogi said.
In 2016, SFA spent around K26,000 for the usage of the Rita Flynn netball courts for competitions and in 2017 they used around K30,000 for the use of Sir John Guise Stadium and Bisini fields.
This year prior to the start of Port Moresby Soccer Association season, SFA was charged K100 to K200 for an hour at Bisini to host their Under-16 and U18 games which have been now moved to the Administration Collage (Waigani) where they pay K400 for a day.
Other venues at schools also have annual rates such as Ela Murray International School (K4500), Port Moresby International School (K4000) and Koroboro (K10,000).