By CHARLIE DUMAVI
PAPUA New Guinea Rugby Football League (PNGRFL) game development unit is calling all rugby leagues to affiliate with them to be recognized as part of the authorized rugby league body in the country.
Game development and participation coordinator Mr. Nigel Hukula said the PNGRFL is intending to get interested leagues throughout the country to send in their expression of interest (EOI) for them to see the number of leagues who will join them.
This is to make sure all rugby league competitions running in the country is sanctioned by PNGRFL, otherwise any league that do not affiliate with PNGRFL is an unsanctioned body of its own.
“The purpose of the EOI is to start gaining the momentum of rugby league. Rugby league in 2023 is looking to gain momentum and this is the beginning of it. We would like to see the number of existing affiliates who have been part of PNGRFL over numerous years and any new interest that would be coming in,” Mr. Hukula said.
He said this is to get the rugby league up and running in local communities and schools across the country after two years of sanctioned local league competition suspension due to Covid-19 outbreak.
PNGRFL Chief Executive Officer Stanley Hondina also added that local leagues and competitions are where the most local people play the game and not in Digicel Cup competition or in the hunters. Therefore, his office is now concentrating in getting all leagues affiliated.
“Thousands of boys and girls play the game at our schools, at our local leagues that is the most important in our six-year structure. Rugby league is coming back to normal; we are calling for expression of interest from local leagues to start getting on the road,” Mr Hondina said.
He said the affiliation or the subscription fee is K1, 000 and player registration is K50. He said there are already over 10 EOI received so far.
However, Mr. Hondina expressed that after receiving all EOI the league will have to meet all the requirements to be properly affiliated and not just paying the fees.
There are two categories of leagues; major leagues compete in provincial capitals and minor leagues compete in district levels and are categories under affiliates.
For school leagues, they come under Associates and are all welcome to submit their EOI.
