The head of PNG Football, David Chung has stood down as President of the Association.
Calls for the resignation of Chung had reached a crescendo after Koupa, Hekari, Bougainville, and more recently, the Lae Football Association were given provisional suspensions.
In an email to EMTV, Chung cited transparency and fairness prior to PNGFA’s general congress.
Throughout the course of the year, the current administration of the PNG Football Association had slowly come under immense scrutiny.
It began with the delayed commencement of the Telikom National Soccer league, and then followed by the lack of support given to both Lae City Dwellers and the Hekari Football Club, prior to their participation in the OFC Champions League.
That however, was followed up by the successful hosting of the OFC Nations cup, where the host nation, would make it to the final for the first time since the sport was introduced in Finschafen in 1884.
Whilst the national team would almost create history by coming close to perennial winners, New Zealand, cynics within the country were still skeptical of the country’s top administrators.
Amidst those that have had accusations of bad governance levelled against them, has been president David Chung, and also General Secretary, Dimirit Mileng.
Mileng has long been adamant that the Association’s main role is to provide policies, which then are to be carried out by the members within the country.
John Kapi Natto is the owner and founder of the Hekari Football club. To date, it is the most successful of sporting franchises in the country. The club has won every NSL Minor Premiership trophy since the competition’s inaugural year in 2006.
And since then, he has been pushing numerous times for change within the organization.
These calls came to a loggerhead 12 days ago, at a news conference held at Hekari headquarters in Port Moresby, where Kapi Natto was joined by a large number of member presidents, including former supporters of the current PNGFA executives.
The current issue stems from PNGFA’s directives to have all member associations comply with FIFA standards, a statute that has been in existence for almost a decade.
The counterargument by these associations has been, from the start, with the existence of these standardized reforms within the code, why has it only been exercised on the eve of PNG football’s most important election?
There are further questions pending, and these mainly on whether the suspension of associations will affect the players involved.
And these questions, will set up for an fascinating period, when all members of PNG Football’s fraternity, meet in Kimbe, West New Britain in December.
