Resourceful PNG has big backing for entry into the NRL
Roy Masters | October 24, 2008
MINING magnate Clive Palmer is the impetus behind Papua New Guinea's bid to enter a team in the NRL within a decade, the rich energy resources of the country being both the lure and the means of financing the franchise.
As PNG prepare to play England tomorrow in the opening World Cup game in Townsville, momentum for the bid is growing, with the NRL's newest club, the Titans, providing advice on how to clear the numerous hurdles the NRL is expected to raise.
Former PNG Minister for Defence Ben Sabumei, the immediate past president of the PNGRL, is likely to head the bid team that has co-opted Titans chairman Paul Broughton, the code's most experienced active official. Sabumei predicted PNG's untapped energy resources and mineral wealth would finance a future team and build a stadium in Port Moresby via tax concessions offered to mining investors.
"We expect that $US30 billion ($45b) will be invested in PNG over the next 30 years, generating enormous revenue for the country," said Sabumei, arguing the country is largely immune from the world's financial meltdown. With money coming in at the rate of $US1b a year, a lot of companies will make a lot of money and we can give them tax breaks if they build a stadium and finance our team. If we find these investors, we won't have to put our hand out to the government for a free handout."
Palmer, who owns the Gold Coast A-League team, met with PNG ministers mid year.
"Clive Palmer came up here some months back and I met with him and the Minister for Energy," Sabumei said. "We were supposed to talk oil and gas in PNG but we talked for an hour on rugby league. All he wanted to talk about was how good it would be to have an NRL team."
Palmer, who also sponsors the Southport Tigers rugby league team, suggested Sabumei liaise with Titans officials.
PNG's Prime Minister, Sir Michael Somare, subsequently became involved, writing to Broughton on September 27: "Two of my Ministers, Hon. William Duma and Hon Philemon Embel, have spoken to me of your efforts and encouragement for a PNG team into the NRL competition
The experience gained by the Titans club under your leadership will be relevant and necessary for PNG to emulate when it commences its journey towards meeting the requirements of the NRL."
Australia's Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, has been briefed and plans to ask Queensland coach Mal Meninga to advise on the development of PNG players.
"Our PM is in talks with Rudd," Sabumei said. "The political will is there. We need scholarships for our boys to go to Australia and we need to establish an academy here. A lot of Queensland companies do business in PNG."
Queensland's 89-member Parliament will sit in Cairns next week, and the guest of honour is Somare, while Santos, Oil Search and Lihir Gold are big players in PNG and based in Australia, along with banking giants ANZ and Westpac. Meninga enjoys a godlike status in PNG.
Still, not all Australians are popular in PNG. The country's Post-Courier newspaper quoted Kumuls coach Adrian Lam from a speech the former NRL first-grader gave at a farewell reception for the team.
Upset that TV interests have joined PNG in a pool with the giants - New Zealand, England and Australia - Lam said: "No one cares about us and I did everything I could to change the draw.
"I argued with them [organisers] for three hours but got nowhere
We will be stronger, we won't be broken and we will give it to them, the British.
"Now I am asking from the bottom of my heart for the Kumuls to understand that special things come to special people and we will stay positive and play hard for the country. We will give it to them, the British."
Because PNG is a member country of the International Rugby League Board, it can't enter a team in the NRL, in the same way the New Zealand Warriors are a separate entity to the NZRL and owned by Kiwi businessman Eric Watson. Sabumei understands this and plans to raise a private consortium.
"Once we let it be known that our government backs us, business will jump in," he predicts. "We're looking at a time frame of six to 10 years.
"Paul Broughton will be on our bid team with Mal Meninga, plus one or two others with connections in Australia and our businessmen here.
"Clive Palmer enthused us. He took us to a Titans match and an Origin game."
Broughton confirmed this, saying Palmer had outlaid $20,000 and the Titans $5000 on tickets and entertainment for PNG officials at the June 11 Origin match and the Manly game at Skilled Park. "He met with the PNG PM and offered to assist by way of contacting the Titans and in hosting the delegates and the ARL were quite happy for me to proceed," Broughton said.
However, the ARL would only be partly involved in the decision to include a PNG team, as it is a member of the NRL Partnership Committee. The NRL is likely to raise the same hurdles the Titans relentlessly cleared, including a stadium, revenue guarantees and travel commitments.
"We hope Clive Palmer will invest here but we are also sure there are other Clive Palmers around who will want to see the benefits an NRL team can bring and how it will improve the lives of our people," Sabumei said.
"We have six million people here and it will be seven million by the time we get an NRL team."
Broughton said it was not just about a football team. "It's as much about sport influencing culture, about the patriotism PNG felt after World War II and respect from your Pacific Island neighbours," he said. "It's about heroes and pride and recognition in being part of a national sporting competition in another country."
