THE semi-final and the final of the premier women’s football competition, the 2020-2021 Women National Soccer League (WNSL) has been cancelled.
PNGFA Competition director Paul Isorua said PNGFA and the Women’s National Soccer League Interim Standing Committee (WNSLISC) have made the difficult decision to cancel the 2020-2021 Women’s National Soccer League finals due to the lengthy indefinite suspension of the competition since Covid-19 control measures were imposed by the Office of the Controller on March 18, 2021.
The PNG Sports Foundation Pandemic Management Committee has also issued a notice on April, 12 2021 suspending all sporting competitions nationwide extending to May 03 2021.
Mr Isorua said the WNSL finals has been suspended since 19th March, 2021 which will be eight weeks of non-active training and competition for the WNSL finalists by May 03, 2021.
With the suspension of all sporting competitions, the four (4) clubs Poro FC, FC Genesis, Sepik FC and NCD Hekari United FC were formally informed of this unfortunate decision by PNGFA this week.
There are other factors that were considered by PNGFA and the WNSL Interim Committee before make this decision include:
- Loss of momentum to high intensity player performance;
- Loss of momentum to high team performance;
- Insufficient time for players to train and reach adequate fitness levels;
- High risk of players sustaining injuries;
- Avoid collision with other scheduled PNGFA competitions that are due to start; and
- Unpredictable status of the Covid-19 pandemic nationwide.
The welfare and well-being of players, coaches and technical officials at this time were highly considered when finalizing this decision.
PNGFA shall reward the qualifying clubs accordingly as due process in due course.
Meanwhile, PNGFA looks forward to working closely with PNG Sports Foundation to ensure the proper ‘Return to Sports’ phase and Covid-19 protocols are in place in preparation to host other scheduled football programs and activities in the times ahead.
