The Papua New Guinea national football team is the national team of

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

and is controlled by the

Papua New Guinea Football Association The Papua New Guinea Football Association, PNGFA is the governing body of football (soccer) in Papua New Guinea. The PNGFA is a member of both FIFA and OFC, having FIFA and OFC affiliation in 1966 after being founded in 1962. The PNGFA is a mem ...

. Its nickname is the ''Kapuls'', which is

Tok Pisin Tok Pisin (,Laurie Bauer, 2007, ''The Linguistics Student’s Handbook'', Edinburgh ; Tok Pisin ), often referred to by English speakers as "New Guinea Pidgin" or simply Pidgin, is a creole language spoken throughout Papua New Guinea. It is an ...

for

Cuscus Cuscus ( or ) is the common name generally given to the species within the four genera of Australasian possum of the family Phalangeridae with the most tropical distribution: * ''Ailurops'' * ''Phalanger'' * ''Spilocuscus'' * ''Strigocuscus'' ...

. Papua New Guinea's highest ever FIFA

ranking A ranking is a relationship between a set of items such that, for any two items, the first is either "ranked higher than", "ranked lower than" or "ranked equal to" the second. In mathematics, this is known as a weak order or total preorder of ...

was 153, in June 2017. As of June 2019, the country was ranked 171 out of 211 countries. This was a drop of 2 places from May 2019. Papua New Guinea had previously left the FIFA rankings, having not competed in a match between July 2007 and August 2011. Their matches at the

2015 Pacific Games The 2015 Pacific Games, also known as Port Moresby 2015 or POM 2015, was held in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, from 4 to 18 July 2015. It was the fifteenth staging of the Pacific Games as well as the third to be hosted in Port Moresby. More tha ...

saw them return to the rankings, and they competed in the

2016 OFC Nations Cup The 2016 OFC Nations Cup was the tenth edition of the OFC Nations Cup, the quadrennial international men's football championship of Oceania organised by the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC). The tournament was played between 28 May and 11 Jun ...

in June 2016; they reached the final, but lost to

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

4–2 on penalties after the score was tied at 0–0 after extra time.

History

1963–1978

The Papuan national team played its first match at the

1963 South Pacific Games The 1963 South Pacific Games, held from 29 August to 9 September 1963 at Suva in Fiji, was the first edition of the South Pacific Games. The multisport games were established to engender bonds of friendship amongst peoples in the Pacific, after an ...

, where it fell to Fiji 3-1 and was eliminated. At the

1966 South Pacific Games The 1966 South Pacific Games, held at Nouméa in New Caledonia from 8–18 December 1966, was the second edition of the South Pacific Games. Participating countries Fourteen Pacific nations or territories participated in the Games: Sports Twelv ...

they reached the third place match but lost to the

New Hebrides New Hebrides, officially the New Hebrides Condominium (french: link=no, Condominium des Nouvelles-Hébrides, "Condominium of the New Hebrides") and named after the Hebrides Scottish archipelago, was the colonial name for the island group ...

. Three years later they reached the same stage, and defeated the Fijian team 2-1 to win the bronze medal. At

1971 South Pacific Games The 1971 South Pacific Games, held at Papeete in Tahiti from 25 August to 5 September 1971, was the fourth edition of the South Pacific Games. Approximately 1,500 male athletes and 500 female athletes participated in the games. Participating co ...

, after losing in the semi-finals to New Caledonia, they were beaten 8-1 by

Tahiti Tahiti (; Tahitian ; ; previously also known as Otaheite) is the largest island of the Windward group of the Society Islands in French Polynesia. It is located in the central part of the Pacific Ocean and the nearest major landmass is Austra ...

in the third place game. Four years later, at the 1975 Games, they were beaten in the group stage by Tahiti and New Caledonia and thus eliminated in the first round.

1979–1995

At the

1979 South Pacific Games The 1979 South Pacific Games, held at Suva in Fiji from 28 August to 8 September 1979, was the sixth edition of the South Pacific Games. Participating countries Nineteen Pacific nations or territories attended: Sports There were 18 sports cont ...

they lost in the quarter-finals 3–2 against the

Solomon Islands Solomon Islands is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 900 smaller islands in Oceania, to the east of Papua New Guinea and north-west of Vanuatu. It has a land area of , and a population of approx. 700,000. Its capit ...

, and in the first phase of the consolation tournament they were beaten 2–0 at the hands of the

. The following year they played in the 1980 Oceania Cup, the precursor to the

OFC Nations Cup The OFC Nations Cup is an international association football tournament held among the OFC member nations. It was held every two years from 1996 to 2004; before 1996 there were two other tournaments held at irregular intervals, under the name ...

, where despite beating the New Hebrides team, their losses to Australia and New Caledonia left them out at the first phase. At

1983 South Pacific Games The 1983 South Pacific Games, held at Apia in Western Samoa from 5–16 September 1983, was the seventh edition of the South Pacific Games. Participating countries Fifteen nations competed at the 1983 South Pacific Games: Sports Despite swimmi ...

they lost the match for third place against the New Caledonian team. In the 1987 edition they won the bronze medal again by beating

Vanuatu Vanuatu ( or ; ), officially the Republic of Vanuatu (french: link=no, République de Vanuatu; bi, Ripablik blong Vanuatu), is an island country located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is east of no ...

3-1. Even so, in the two subsequent editions, 1991 and 1995, they were eliminated in the first phase.

1996–2012

After an absence in three editions of the OFC Nations Cup, due to the poor results obtained in the

Melanesia Cup The MSG Prime Minister's Cup, formerly known as Melanesia Cup is an association football championship played between the Melanesian countries, it was used (along with the Polynesia Cup) for qualification to the Oceania Nations Cup. The original ...

, they qualified for the 2002 tournament. They were only able to salvage a point in a 0-0 draw against the

and bowed out in the first round. In

2003 South Pacific Games The 2003 South Pacific Games were held in Suva, Fiji from 28 June to 12 July 2003. They are also known as the XII South Pacific Games. The Games were the 12th ''South Pacific Games'' to be held since the event's inception and were the 40th anni ...

they had a poor performance and in five games only obtaining four points. After not participating in 2007, which served as qualification for the

2008 OFC Nations Cup The 2008 OFC Nations Cup was the eighth edition of the OFC Nations Cup and the first under a new format. It took place as a series of as a home-and-away round-robin tournament on FIFA match dates in 2007 and 2008. Doubling as the qualification to ...

, they were eliminated in the first phase at 2011 Pacific Games by having worse goal difference than

, with whom they tied on points. In the

2012 OFC Nations Cup 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

they drew with Fiji and lost to the

and

, again being eliminated in the group stage.

2013–present

In 2015 Papua New Guinea was designated to host the

. In the group stage, the Papuan team drew 1-1 with New Caledonia, 2-2 against

and beat

Samoa Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa; sm, Sāmoa, and until 1997 known as Western Samoa, is a Polynesian island country consisting of two main islands ( Savai'i and Upolu); two smaller, inhabited islands ( Manono and Apolima); ...

8-0. After achieving victory in the semi-finals, 2–1 against the Solomon Islands, they lost on penalties to

in the final after drawing 0–0 in regulation time.

Kit sponsorship

Results and fixtures

''For all past match results of the national team, see the team's results page.'' In March 2022, Papua New Guinea will play their first matches since they took part in the 2019 Pacific Games.

2022

Coaching history

* Richard Tamari Nagai (1996–1998) * John Davani (2002) * Steve Cain (2002) * Ludwig Peka (2003–2004) * Marcos Gusmão (2004–2011) *

Frank Farina Frank Farina OAM (born 5 September 1964) is an Australian football (soccer) coach and former player who played as a forward. His playing career spanned Australia, Belgium, France, Italy and England, and was a major player for the Australia ...

(2011–2013) * Mike Keeney (2013) * Wynton Rufer (2014–2015) * Flemming Serritslev (2015–2018) * Bob Morris (2019-2021) * Marcos Gusmão (2021–present)

Current squad

The following players were called up for the FIFA World Cup qualification matches in March 2022. ''Caps and goals correct as of 27 March 2022, after the match against

.''

Player records

:''Players in bold are still active with Papua New Guinea.''

Most capped players

Top goalscorers

Competitive record

FIFA World Cup

* Although initially listed by FIFA as having entered the 2010 World Cup, PNG did not enter the football tournament at the 2007 South Pacific Games, which was used as the preliminary round of the Oceanian zone qualification tournament.

OFC Nations Cup

:''*Denotes draws include knockout matches decided via

penalty shoot-out The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...

.''

Pacific Games

Head-to-head record

''Up to matches played on 20 July 2019.''

References

External links

Papua New Guinea Football Association

"Latest Papua New Guinea Football News"
Oceania Football Federation
National Football Teams

National football team of Papua New Guinea picture
{{DEFAULTSORT:Papua New Guinea National Football Team Oceanian national association football teams