Papua New Guinea will be amongst 28 countries to the 7^th Touch Football World Cup in Edinburgh, Scotland, to be played from June 20 to 26, 2011.

TFPNG has nominated and registered 5 divisional teams which includes the core open men, women & mixed divisions with the senior men & women. The worse case for us will be sending only two of the core open teams, depending on funding.

PNG's 5 nominated teams will be amongst the total of 102 teams entries registered to take part in the 7^th Touch World Cup. Of this total the core open teams numbers stands at 18 open men (OM), 16 open women (OW) and 24 open mixed (OMx) entries, a record 58 open division teams. 44 of the teams comprised of M+30=11, W30=4, SMX=4, M35=10 & M40=11 teams.

PNG will be one of only 4 Pacific islands nations to take part with PNG’s 5 team entries being the highest followed by Fiji with 3 team entries.

Participating nations are Switzerland, Japan, Netherlands, Italy, Australia, Scotland, Guernsey, New Zealand, Niue, United States, Jersey, Cook Islands, France, Austria, England, Wales, South Africa, Singapore, Belgium, Germany, PNG, Catalonia, Ireland, Lebanon, Spain, Fiji, & Samoa. Another 11 nations are still deciding to attend and have until December 2010 to nominate.

The TFPNG together with its new breed of Team PNG management and players are committed to attend the WC2011, come June 2011. Each participant is expected to pay K2, 500 as levy with the balance of funds to come from fund raising events and corporate and public sponsorship.

PNG senior women’s team is ranked 5^th in the world, whilst the other 5 divisional teams are outside the top 10 nations. Hence it is the Team PNG TF commitment to finish in the top 10 and improve the SW ranking during the WC2011.

The players selected were during the recent Kokopo 2^ND Provincial Championship. The Coaches & Management personnel were appointed through applications received. Each Team management will take care of the teams total cost and be responsible for their costs to the WC2011.

The WC2011 Team management is Ms Lorraine Cheong-General Team Manageress, Peter Bernard-Manager Senior Manager, Lawrence Sorbo- Manager Senior Men, Ms Tammy Opa-Manager Open Women, Ms Alice Kwarara- Manager Senior Women, John Bonot-Manager Open Men, Dominic Kyle-Manager Open Mix, The WC2011 Coaching Team is Augustine Aisi-Coach Senior Men. Siwi Aipe is the Webmaster/Reporter/Photograher.

John Howard & Dean Russell from the FIT technical team will be assisting the PNG team’s preparation for the WC2011 with coaching & mentoring before, during & after the WC. The two were here in Port Moresby in July this year, conducting a Level 2 & 1 Australian ticketed course were 20 coaches including 4 women graduated with Level 1 coaching certificate.

Corporate the general public and the Government of PNG will be approached for financial support for the 5 teams to attend the WC2011. The team has 6 months to prepare financially, physically & mentally for the WC2011. The objective of the team is to finish in the top 10 and be the number one Pacific island nation in WC placing for the 5 divisional teams.

The team players go into full training this week with a Sunday & Wednesday 2 hour training sessions. The selected players are to report to their Manager or Coach in their respective locations to obtain information on training and other logistics.

Visit http://www.touchworldcup2011.co.uk for further details.

 Further Information on the above can be obtained on the contacts as follows:-

i)                   Joe Yore- President on telephone 325 7293 or email- jyore@pngwater.com.pg.

ii)                Sesevi Lae- Executive Director on telephone 326 2179 or 71029400 or email- seslae@daltron.com.pg.

 This news flash story is a product of Touch football PNG.

For further details contact President Joe Yore on 325-7293 or 686-3114

Thank you for being our partner in promoting human development through sports publicity.

Touch is a sport for all – where all ages and genders and ability can play the sport within their own levels or categories.