NSL gets K3m backing

The PNG Football Association has received a K3 million boost from Kumul Petroleum Holdings Ltd (KPHL).

The platinum sponsorship will support PNGFA’s premier competition, the National Soccer League, for two years.

Of the K3 million, K1 million will be for the 2019 season while K2 million will cover the next year.

This platinum sponsorship will give Kumul Petroleum Holdings Ltd the naming rights to the National Soccer League, which will now be called Kumul Petroleum National Soccer League. 

“We hope that soccer can rise to a different level and we can promote the game and identify talents. So we can reach out to the different corners of the country, and it is right that the national oil company stands beside the PNG Football Association,” said KPHL director, Wapu Sonk.

PNG Football Association President, John Kapi Natto, said when he was elected on the 27th of October, 2018, his immediate vision was to take soccer to all corners of this country.

“This country produces so many young people, going out with no jobs. One of that, to contain their activities, is sports. And so we should create vision for that,” said Kapi Natto.

“Football is a global game, it’s a world game played over 211 nations. This partnership, with my management, with the National Soccer League, now we have a good governance in place, we’re working on it, FIFA has come down, stressed this to us.

“There’s a next level that we want to take football to. And FIFA wants to see that each country in the world must become professional. Only then that our players can go throughout the world.”

For the first time, PNGFA has four conferences or regions in the NSL, and Kapi Natto says this is a milestone for football in spite of the political infighting from 2016 to 2018 that held back the sport. 

The NSL competition kicked off last week in the Southern and Northern conferences, while the Highlands and NGI leg will start next month.

The PNGFA established NSL in 2006, where the games were mostly played in Port Moresby, Lae and Madang.

Author: 
Carmella Gware