The Papua New Guinea Government has allocated K100 million (US$25 million) in the 2025 National Budget to sports which was handed down last Friday in the National Parliament.
Under Volume 3A document of the budget ‘Public Investment Programme for National Government Departments 2025-2029’ the PNG NRL Bid Support Programme is allocated K100 million(US$25 million)(K400 million (US$100 million) in total) for four years (2025, 2027, 2028 and 2029).
The programme is under PNG Sports Foundation and also includes an allocation of K50 million (US$12.57 million) towards the PNG Grassroots Games.
PNG’s NRL Bid still has certain boxes to tick and this includes funding, players and academy pathways, facilities, etc.
Earlier this year saw the launching of the NRL Bid Academy programme which is a significant step towards identifying and nurturing junior players.
Under the leadership of PNG NRL Bid CEO Andrew Hill, the programme reached out to creating development centres in Lae, Mt Hagen, Goroka, Rabaul and Port Moresby.
The successful stories of players coming into PNG Kumuls and PNG Orchids through the Digicel ExxonMobil Cup and Santos Cup as well as the PNG rugby football league’s affiliated leagues and into the Hunters still needs more focus on development pathways.
This funding allocation by the national government will enable PNG NRL Bid team to fully tick off all the requirements set out by NRL prior to officially enter the competition.
Meanwhile, Papua New Guinea’s entry into the NRL has been confirmed and they are set to be officially announced as the competition’s newest team before Christmas.
The new PNG team is to receive $600 million (US$388 million) in government funding, which has been approved and secured according to Code Sports, with there talks that the announcement could be made as early as next week in Sydney.
In a perfect world, the NRL would announce the 18th and 19th team at the same time, however the Perth Bears’ bid is moving much more slowly than the PNG one.
While 2027 is the earmarked season of entry for the Perth Bears, PNG aren’t expected to enter the competition until 2028.
It’s been quite the effort from the PNG and Australian government to pull this off, given the obvious challenges over whether the country will be able to house an NRL team.
Soon, it’ll be one giant step closer to a reality, and for a rugby league mad country, a team in Australia’s national competition will do wonders.
Regarding the Perth bid, there were good signs for its future when ARL Commission chairman met with the WA government in Sydney two weeks ago.
Despite this step forward, it’s unlikely the NRL and the WA government will complete a deal in the coming weeks, meaning the NRL is willing to announce PNG next and then the Perth Bears down the track.
The NRL is confident that Perth will be part of an expanded competition but for every month that goes by without a deal, it becomes more and more unlikely that they’ll be ready for inclusion by the 2027 season.
