Soccer association set for pre-season seven-a-side comp

NATIONAL Capital District Public Servants Soccer Association (NCDPSSA) will kick off its seven-a-side pre-season competition on Aug 7 following next week’s presentation of the 2019 grand final awards.
Association president Vonnie Kapi Natto said the presentation was deferred due to issues among the participating clubs which had been resolved.
She said the competition had a season-long hiatus last year due to the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, however, they are looking forward to a strong campaign in 2021.
“This year, we have a lot of teams in our association, 15 clubs, that’s including our youths (Under-15s, U17s and U19s),” Kapi Natto said.
“With the executives’ approval, we have decided to take the teams that have come earlier.
“All of them have responded that they want to be part of the season, so we will decide after our next meeting.
“I am appealing to clubs to meet at Papua New Guinea Football Stadium to finalise expressions of interest before our games start next weekend.”
She said matches would be played without spectators until they got approval from the PNG Football Association, however, they were expecting an exciting season.
Due to uncertainties over Covid-19, NCDPSSA’s executives have agreed to have only one round of matches before the playoffs.
Kapi Natto said following the pre-season, they would finalise the teams before the master list was presented before the season kick-off.
“Wantoks will be affected because most of their players are competing in the National Soccer League (NSL) as well as few other players in the other NSL teams,” she said.
“But I believe we will have a lot of raw talents coming in from other clubs, so I’m looking forward to that.”
Meanwhile, competition manager John Forova said the pre-season competition would run for five weeks with at least 24 teams participating.