The Islands leg of the Besta Cup Qualifying tournament kicked off in Kimbe at the football academy centre yesterday.
The tournament will run for five days with 31 participating teams including 18 men’s and 13 women’s teams with games to be played in four pools.
The Islands and national defending champions Manus arrived with four teams including one woman and three men’s teams to defend their title.
Meanwhile, Bougainville arrived with only two men’s team representing South and Central Bougainville respectively.
Host team Kimbe including its sub association teams from Buluma, Biala, Kumbango and Talasia together with Kimbe Soccer association, have a total of 16 participating teams in the tournament.
Rabaul has four participating teams, two men’s and two women’s while their neighbouring province New Ireland could not make it to the tournament due to own reasons.