Star Mountain mulling withdrawal from NSL

STAR Mountain are considering withdrawing from the National Soccer League if the season does not resume soon, given the financial constraints of the team since the suspension of the campaign on Sept 30.
Team manager Joseph Ame told The National yesterday that since the suspension, their bills had been increasing.
The Southern Conference team have been based at Malolo Estate, 8-Mile, since the season commenced in July.
“We raised the issue with the Papua New Guinea Football Association through a chain of emails, asking them to assist us with our bills but we haven’t received any response yet,” Ame told The National yesterday.
“We are considering withdrawing if the situation is not on our side, but that’s not an easy decision to make.
“I’ll have to make a final consultation with the club chairman before making any decision to withdraw.”
He said another issue they were facing was getting their players vaccinated in case it became a condition for the season to resume.
“If the majority of the players refuse to get vaccinated then it will be a problem for the club,” Ame said.
“The association has given clubs an option to do a Covid-19 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test every weekend (for unvaccinated players) before matches, but it’s an expensive exercise.
“Where I work, a test costs K400 for one person.
“So if we were to do that for 18 players and four officials that’s K8,800 every weekend.
“It’s a costly exercise and with the club struggling with finances, that’s just too much for us.”
Meanwhile, competitions director Roosje Suwae said her association was meeting with representatives of the 14 clubs tomorrow, where the option of the test would be discussed.
However, association general secretary Pius Letenge said: “We have never recommended PCR testing in every game.
“Information has twisted somewhere by someone or some people and it’s very unhealthy for the efforts everyone is putting to see our competition resume.
“No clubs were required to do PCR. This is an expensive exercise and results from PCR testing doesn’t take a day as it goes through some testing processes.”