2011 South Pacific Games Football - Papua New Guinea

National Flag of Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea have made appearances in all bar one (2007) of the previous football tournaments at the South Pacific Games. Although they have never managed to come away with the Gold medal they have had a reasonable amount of success; placing in the top four on five occasions.

They have also entered the 1998 and 2006 World Cups but failed to qualify. In 1998 they advanced to the second round of qualification but were drawn in a difficult group against New Zealand and Fiji and were subsequently knocked out at this stage. As a result of not entering the 2007 South Pacific Games which doubled up as a preliminary qualifying round for Oceania they were disqualified from the further 2010 World Cup qualifiers.

Along with a few other entrants in this year’s South Pacific Games, Papua New Guinea are at the bottom of the FIFA World rankings. This ranking is mainly due to Papua New Guinea having not played a match since the summer of 2007. If they do not play a match within the next month then they risk being removed from the FIFA World rankings.

The team is currently managed by former Australia striker Frank Farina. Farina had a very brief loan spell in England in 1992 with Notts County although he only played 3 games and didn’t score.

Since 1987, Papua New Guinea have failed to progress further than the first round in the Games. Unless they get a very easy draw in the group stages this year, it is unlikely that they will reach the knockout stages due solely to the fact they haven't played a competitive fixture for 4 years.