PNG to upgrade venues for world events

Papua New Guinea Sports Minister Justin Tkatchenko says the PNG Government will pump K15 million into upgrading all facilities to be used during the 2016 FIFA Under-20 women’s World Cup in Port Moresby.

Tkatchenko made the comments while welcoming the news of FIFA’s approval of Papua New Guinea’s hosting rights at an extraordinary meeting in Zurich over the weekend.

The meeting was attended by PNG Football Association president David Chung.

He said aside from some changes to the major venues in the city such as the Sir John Guise Stadium and the Bisini soccer field, the money would be spent on upgrading the fields and training facilities at schools in the National Capital District.

“We’re going to put money into upgrading ovals and fields at 10 to 15 schools in Port Moresby to be used as training venues for the visiting teams. 

“That means things like improving playing surfaces, irrigating fields, building change rooms and basically modernising existing facilities,” Tkatchenko said.

He said primary schools and secondary schools would be sought for the upgrading exercise.

The Sir Hubert Murray and National Football stadiums once completed by their respective developers — Curtain Brothers (SHMS) and Leighton PNG (NFS) — will be brought in line with FIFA requirements for staging international matches.

Taktchenko, pictured, said the developers were aware of the requirements and would configure the facilities to suit the FIFA plan with regards to playing surface quality, television broadcasting and media access points, security and other minor adjustments.

The seating capacity at the Bisini venue would be upgraded with a significant increase from its initial plan. He made it clear that the Government, PNGFA and FIFA would work in tandem to run the tournament.

“FIFA will run the show in terms of the actual event because it is their tournament. 

“They will handle media, teams, matches and technical matters while we (the Government) will help facilitate the tournament with ensuring the venues are up to FIFA standards, take care of team accommodation, security, crowd management and things like that.”

 The tournament, which will be staged in the capital Port Moresby next November, will attract 15 nations, along with hosts PNG and be played in four pools.

Nine teams, including PNG, have been confirmed with the remaining seven places to be decided in qualifiers being staged at present. Europe has four teams in the tournament including defending champions Germany. The others are France, Spain and Sweden.

Asia has three qualifiers in Japan, North Korea and South Korea.

New Zealand are the Oceania qualifiers. The remaining places will be filled by Africa (2), North, Central America and the Carribean (3) and South America (2).