PROBE PNGFA: Where Is the Football Academy For Bougainville and WNB?

The world’s greatest game still faces a lot of challenges in terms of its development in Papua New Guinea despite millions of dollars being funded by the Federation of International Football Associations (FIFA) to develop soccer in the region.

Majority of the then sixteen (16) recognized football associations in PNG are not having active competitions and the level of competency between provincial teams has significantly dropped.

Proper playing and training facilities, academies and skills development programs are yet to be introduced to most affiliated associations under the Papua New Guinea Football Association (PNGFA).

The selection of PNG Mens and Womens soccer teams have been based mainly on successful competitions in Lae, Lahi, Madang and Port Moresby. Smaller town competitions like Wau, Manus, Kagamuga among others have struggled to qualify their players for the semi-professional and national duties.

The missing link has been the absence of active competitions and development programs in schools and communities in rural areas and the sporting facilities, officials and resources to run competitions.

The PNGFA Football Academy in Lae couldn’t cater for all aspiring soccer players in Morobe alone.

PNGFA President David Chung has been at helm of looking after soccer not only in PNG, but the region as a whole as President of the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) vice president of FIFA.

Under his leadership, many member associations have raised concerns of not getting what they deserve from the PNGFA.

Here are some of the projects funded by FIFA that didn’t eventuate;

-       BOUGAINVILLE AND KIMBE FOOTBALL ACADEMY

As reported by The National Newspaper on Thursday September 4^th 2014

The National, Thursday September 4th, 2014

 By HENRY MORABANG

THE setting up a football academy and elite programme is the key for the future of the game in the country.

PNGFA president David Chung said that after at the ground-breaking ceremony of PNGFA Football Academy in Bougainville last Friday.

Chung said the Bougainville Academy was built using money from the FIFA Less Privelleged fund at a cost of K1.8 million, while the Autonomous Region of Bougainville government contributed K1.8 million in a kina for kina arrangement.

Chung said plans to build other academies were still in progress. 

The Gold Project-funded academy in West New Britain capital, Kimbe, is undergoing phase one of the project while phase two would be paid for with a funding of K1 million by the provincial government.

Chung said he could only acquire more FIFA funding if the Kimbe project was 90% complete. 

FIFA Gold Project development officer Glen Turner is pushing hard for Kimbe to complete the project before they (PNGFA) can have additional financial assistance.

Chung, the vice-president of FIFA, said he wanted to install floodlights at the academy so national teams could train and play at night.

“If everything goes according to plan, PNGFA will submit for funding to upgrade the main academy in Lae, and hopefully push for a Port Moresby academy to be built,” Chung said. He said it would cost K1.2 million for all the projects.

The main purpose of the football academies would be to evaluate and monitor players involved in the programmes. 

Statistics and other data would be kept on players to track their porgress. Chung said this was an important aspect of elite sport that the PNGFA was committed to.

ONE MILLION FOR SOCCER ACADEMY IN KIMBE

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The Soccer Academy in Kimbe is one million kina closer to realization.

This was the amount West New Britain Governor, Sasindran Muthuvel, handed over to PNGFA President, David Chung, in Port Moresby yesterday.

It represents the West New Britain Provincial Government’s counterpart funding toward the project.

At a media conference in Port Moresby yesterday, the West New Britian Governor was happy to meet the province’s commitment to the K2.4 million academy.

The Governor was also pleased to note that FIFA gave its approval for the construction of this academy, not only to promote soccer, but other codes as well, using this facility. This facility will also be used when the province hosts the PNG games in 2016.

PNGFA president David Chung was grateful for WNB honoring its commitment.

Chung said formal approval for the academy in Bougainville is expected to be granted by FIFA at its meeting on March 22nd.

There will be a groundbreaking ceremony in April or May of this year for the academy in Bougainville. The AROB government has committed counterpart funding of US$600,000 (K1.3million) with FIFA to meet the other half, to construct this new facility.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=tNjyaXlHVGQ%3Ffeature%3Doembed%26wmode%3Dopaque%26showinfo%3D0%26showsearch%3D0%26rel%3D0

-       FUNDING FOR ASSOCIATIONS IN PNGFA

November 2, 2016

SOCCER

THE long awaited Financial Assistance Program (FAP) for Papua New Guinea Football Association (PNGFA) member associations will be delivered as early as December this year.
This follows the announcement made by PNGFA President David Chung in August this year.
The FAP value is K100,000.
The financial assistance program will be headed by former Madang Soccer president Seigfried Beschel.
“The FAP is program driven, geared as a development tool to assist the member associations,” said PNGFA general secretary Dimirit Mileng.
The specific areas being targeted include:

•    Investment & Capital Cost

•    Materials & Equipment

•    Project Operational Costs

•    Education & Capacity Building

•    Project Staff Costs

•    Football Events & Competitions

•    Subventions

•    Fees and Consultancy

•    Project Marketing & Consultancy

Mileng said the finer details and areas within these categories are contained in the application form.
“The financial assistance will be provided to member associations who have developed their strategic plan for their association.
“The strategic planning and administration workshop was conducted with the assistance of Oceania Football Confederation Staff in mid-May this year in Goroka.
“Member associations were to have completed their Strategic Plan and submit to the secretariat office.
“So far no association has submitted their plans accordingly,” he said.
FAP funds will not be handed out without submissions of quotations and details of service provider’s bank details amongst the criteria set.
“And more importantly it must be aligned with member association Strategic Plans.
“As the FAP will be used accordingly and must also be reported for audit purpose,”Mileng added.

https://postcourier.com.pg/pngfa-to-deliver-financial-assistance-to-member-associations/

SOCCER REVAMP

July 1, 2016 Post Courier

The country’s national football body – Papua New Guinea Football Association has gone through a lot of improvement since 2004.
Our achievements date back from July 2004 – 2016 – as we began laying the foundations of our football body in order to strengthen the code. Re-organizing PNGFA and restructure for accountability was important;

• Putting in place an accounting system;
• Getting 2014 account report in place for FIFA; and
• Audited yearly putting in place an accounting system that gets yearly audited and sent to FIFA since 2005.
  Looking at improving our current facilities with goal projects to set the path way to rebuilding facilities;
• Goal project rebuilding Lae Academy work completed by the contractor;
• Second facility – building an academy in Kimbe. We secured funding and now the construction is underway in Kimbe.
• Construction underway to improve Lae facilities especially for more staff, solar panel lights for the facilities, floodlights for playing fields, building on new kitchen, gym facilities and renovation of the accommodation.
  Improving the game was the number one priority and establishing the semi-pro competition was the way to go;
• Set up National Soccer League and the mission is to lift the profile of PNGFA competition through a higher level format of competition.
• Franchises take ownership who are interested to pay players to play. In that way good players are grouped together to play thus lifting the standard of the game.
• We allowed a minimum of 5 foreign players to be recruited. Our member associations are important and so are their competitions. It is important to keep the competition between MA as to maintain the level of competition among them.
• We introduced FA Cup for members through Regional Qualifications and top 2 from the men and women’s team go through to the final. We managed to secure Besta sponsorship and this has paid dividends as we continue to grow the game in this provincial level.
• We set up the Besta Under-20 youth team as a franchise to participate in the NSL. Our mission is to prepare them for future national duties.
  To continue to develop our game we need to have established programs in PNGFA
• We introduced elite developments programs with OFC.
• We introduced coach/mentoring programs with OFC and got professional coaches to be in PNG to conduct courses and coach the national team.
• This resulted in the success story of the men’s national soccer team’s performance in the recent 2016 Nation’s cup.
  The result was also evident during the men’s performance in the Pacific Games where they received a bronze medal. The result was also good for the women’s national team who won gold and retained the Pacific Games title for the fourth time in a row.
• We are now providing more education in terms of coaching and refereeing. We average about 9 courses a year for coaching and referees courses.
  Our participation in OFC tournaments began the pathway for the women in the country;
• Participate in all OFC qualifications tournament.
  Women’s senior team undefeated and won 4 consecutive times in Pacific Games.
• We established Education Centre and programs through OFC; and
• Now we are hosting the first ever FIFA U20 Women World Cup in PNG come November; and
• Hosted International friendly tournament for the men and women.
  To build on educating our human resources is the important tool to sustain our growth in the game
• Now we are setting up an education centre in Lae and by September this centre should open; and
• We are also setting another education centre in Kimbe. We aim to have it completed by January and open the centre after Provincial Games.
  Our future is very important. This is our focus.
  We have set the foundation to build on that with our programs already established.
• FA competition U19 men and women;
• FA competition U15 men and women;
• FA competition U17 men and women;
• FA Cup competition men and women;
• National Soccer League men;

Women National Soccer League will be launched in July to start season 2017.
Summary
We have set up the foundations for PNGFA based on our strategic planning on three pillars that is to grow the games, create pathways, general income.
We have shown the way to inspire to excel.
Our mission for 2017 – 2020 onwards will be to assist members association in the following areas;

• Members Association competition structure;
• Members Association technical develop programs;
• Members Association Administration and Business development planning programs;
• Members Association infrastructure;
• PNG Football financial assistance programs annual budget for K2 million special project applications funding to FIFA.
• Funding application criteria and forms will be ready by November 2016 for members association to secure their funding as early as before 31st January 2017

Member Association are eligible to apply funding to the total of K110,000 maximum per year allocated for all or any of  the 5 categories members can choose from;

1. Competition

• Expenses for officials; Logistics; Referees allowances; Accommodation; Food; Trophies.

2. Coaching

• Attend course expenses; hosting courses expenses.

3. Referees

• Attend courses expenses;

4. Infrastructure

• Leasing of fields of play; Maintenance of fields of play; and

5. Administration

• Wages for full time general secretary; Wages for fulltime technical development office; Wages for book keeping and audit fees.

https://postcourier.com.pg/soccer-revamp/

Now that David Chung has resigned over allegations of fraud,  the entire PNGFA executives have to be investigated and all their books have to be audited.

Current PNGFA executives have to be cleared if they have breached any laws on occupying office. Executives have to be presidents of existing member football associations.

To be continued in Part 2