Papua New Guinea qualifies to co-host 2017 Rugby League World Cup

Rugby League mad nation, Papua New Guinea will host some rugby league World Cup matches in Port Moresby in September of 2017. The country's  Minister for Sports and National Events Justin Tkatchenko told media that  “We have signed the deal and we are confirmed to host some rugby league matches of the 2017 rugby league World Cup here in Port Moresby,. We have done our part and I have been in talks with various people at the government level and also in touch with the International rugby league federation and I must assure you that we will host some games here at our world class stadiums in Port Moresby".

Port Moresby now has major stadiums including Sir John Guise stadium (Pacific Games Stadium) with capacity of 18 000 seats, National Stadium (formerly PRL) has capacity of 15 000 seats and Sir Hubert Murray Stadium has a capacity of 20 000. 

According to the  Sydney Morning Herald, Prime Minister Peter O'Neill is hopeful to host the Rugby League World Cup in the country and some of the stadiums in Port Moresby will be extended to capacity of 50 000 seats or more. 

"As you can see Papua New Guineans love the game and I hope that the NRL and the other custodians of our game can come up here and expose the game to people a bit more," O'Neill said. "We built it [the stadium] specifically for the [Pacific] Games but also to accommodate rugby league and other sports in the country.

"Hopefully the International Rugby League board will accept our offer," Mr O'Neill said. "Of course Australia and New Zealand are going to host it, but we are part of the Queensland Rugby League [competition] at present, we have developed our local competition and the schoolboys competition, so rugby league has a big future in this country.

 According to the rugby league world cup site, 14 countries will be competing in this world event that will be jointly hosted by Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea.