The much-anticipated Rigo Coast Super League soccer competition kicked off on Saturday 29th March, at Kaparoko village in the Central province.
Competition President and Papua New Guinea Football Association (PNGFA) Vice President for Southern Region, Mr. Morea Vavine, has gathered teams from the Rigo coast to participate in the competition that will run for 5 months with 11 teams, to prove themselves as the top teams to take part in the PNGFA-sanctioned regional club championships, under the affiliation of Koupa Soccer Association.
He said the competition started on Saturday and soccer being a dominant sport in the Rigo coast, a lot of people are looking forward to the matches to come.
“So, most of the clubs or associations are not affiliated with PNGFA, only Koupa Soccer Association. I got them in, and my objective is to encourage the youth and all that, to expose their talent. To be exposed to, like, PNGFA sanctioned competitions and other programs,” said Mr. Vavine.
Mr. Vavine stated that from yesterday’s first round of matches, he was impressed with the teams fielding young players who displayed great football techniques and a promising future for players like them.
He said, this great opportunity paves the way for the best team in the competition to go under the Koupa Soccer Association and take part in PNGFA-sanctioned competition, the regional club championship like the club championships in November-December.
He added that, apart from the club championships, the winning team will be exposed to other pathways like the BESTA tournament or even PNGFA-sanctioned tournaments like the Premier Soccer League (PSL) or the National Soccer League (NSL).
Mr. Vavine said they will introduce the women’s and Under 17 girls’ teams next week or the week after that.
“We only kicked of the men’s competition yesterday with 4 games and the women’s games will kick off next week or the week after that. All the games will be played on Saturdays only. Sunday is reserved for church. But when the women’s and girls’ teams start playing, we will have them play on Thursday’s and the rest of the games on Saturday.”
Furthermore, Mr. Vavine gave the updates from Saturday with Papaka defeating Hula 2-1, Kaparoko defeated Makerepu 4-2, Kemo drew 1 all with a development team, and Kamali defeated Kalo 1-0.