This afternoon at 4pm will mark exactly 50 days to go before the first match of the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup between Sweden and Korea DPR at the Sir John Guise stadium.
CEO of the Local Organising Committee (LOC), Seamus Marten, said a lot has been happening behind the scenes since the 100 Days countdown early last month.
He said this included the LOC hosting the team workshop that saw a delegation from the FIFA headquarters in Zurich attend a week-long meeting with team delegates and stakeholders. This provided an avenue for teams to see first-hand preparations on the ground.
He added that winner’s trophy was unveiled by the Sports Minister, Justin Tkatchenko, during the team workshop.
The national carrier, Air Niugini, was then announced as the first local company to come on board as a national supporter of the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup, with others close to confirming their commitment next week.
“Awareness of the tournament is also being carried out with the tournament mascot Susa making appearances at the recent Independence celebrations held at the Paga road (Port Moresby).
“The ticketing team has commenced the sale of corporate box packages this week and this has generated a lot of interest from the business community in the various available packages,” said Marten.
He said currently the LOC Accreditation consultant, Shane Goldfinch, is in the country to assist LOC’s accreditation team meet all FIFA’s accreditation requirements and standards before accreditation goes live online at 4pm today.
“The online accreditation or registration is for workforce that has an operational role to play during the tournament. Those eligible to apply for the online accreditation are our partner agencies, venue owners, service providers and the general workforce,” said Marten.
Marten added the four venue general managers that were recently appointed will also be traveling to Jordan early next month to attend the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup. This is to get a feel of what the tournament will be like when they return to run the event in November at their match venues.
Besides planning of the tournament, infrastructure development in the Bava Park and PNG Football stadium has picked up and is on target.
“The stands and seats have already been put in while the two-storey building to house the team’s change rooms and VIP rooms is going up.
“With 50 days to go, all functional areas of the LOC have continued to ensure that their operational areas are ready before kick off on November 13,” said Marten.