Papua New Guinea has two (2) FIFA referees and five (5) FIFA assistant referees.
One of the main aims of the current Papua New Guinea Football Association (PNGFA) Administration,headed by Mr. David Chung, is to develop local referees and push for more PNG referees to be certified by FIFA, the world soccer governing body.
Papua New Guinea Football Association adopted a framework for the development of referees in Papua New Guinea at its annual ordinary congress in 2003. The quotes below show the adapted referees structural hierarchy.
[PNGFA Referees Committee]
[Referee Panel]
[Regional Instructors]
[Momase] [Highlands] [New Guinea Islands] [Southern]
In the new structure,4 referees instructors are appointed by PNGFA in each geographical region to over look active referees in the associations as shown above. This instructors report to the PNGFA Referees Panel, which reports to the Referees Committee.
National Referee Structure before 2003
Referees were allowed to form referees associations and affiliate to the National Referee Association, the Papua New Guinea Football Referees Association. (PNGFRA). Referees have been allowed to register through their local associations to become a member of the Papua New Guinea Referees Association after the local association's affiliated to the Papua New Guinea Football Association. However, this has been abolished and is now changed to the following structure.
Current National Referee Structure
Referees are required to register directly to Papua New Guinea Football Association (PNGFA) to become a member of Papua New Guinea Football Referees. After a referee is registered directly to PNGFA, that referee is recognized as a PNGFA National Referee and can officiate any PNGFA sanctioned tournament upon selection by PNGFA.
The refereeing education provided by PNGFA in PNG is all categorized into levels. That is Basic or Introductory Level, Level 1, Level 2, Level 3, Level 4, Level 5 and Level 6 referees. The basic level referees are those who want to be football referees for the first time and sometimes are called cadets. It is the foundation and the starting level where a referee starts refereeing education. After attending the basic refereeing course the successfully ones are issued the basic referees certificate. The basic referees certificate qualifies the referee for the Level 1 refereeing course and the same applies to the other levels. The Levels are as follows;
[Basic Level] - [Level 1] - [Level 2] - [Level 3] - [Level 4] - [Level 5] - [Level 6] - {FIFA Assistant Referee} - {FIFA Referee}
Nomination for FIFA Certification
An analysis is then done on the referee's performance by the PNGFA Referees panel on the referee's physical fitness and accurate ruling of games in the field. If the referee is seen to be fit in his or her performance, the referee is then listed for FIFA Nomination with his or her bio-data from the PNGFA Database.
More women have taken up refereeing as their football career while and after playing football in their respective areas. The following shows the actual and estimated number of women referees in PNG.
Actual and certified by PNGFA: 13
Estimated: More than 40
Men referees
Actual and Certified: 323
Estimated: More than 400
