Following the announcement on March 24, and letter of confirmation from FIFA deputy secretary general Markus Kattner, Chung is expected to meet Prime Minister Peter O’Neill this week to finalise details of the Local Organising Committee (LOC).
Chung returned from a successful bid to the FIFA executive committee meeting in Zurich last month, where he politically manoeuvred the win with his network of support from Africa, Asia and Europe that he built during his reign as one of six FIFA confederate vice-presidents.
PNG won the bid ahead of Sweden.
Chung said the initial instinct to fight for the case began last year, when the FIFA executive committee decided that the tournament would be the last for a country to host under the old criteria.
Chung clarified that from 2016 onwards countries that want to bid for the U20 must also be capable of doubling with the senior women’s World Cup as well.
“I saw this as PNG’s first real chance to stake for a bid and it was helped with FIFA president Sepp Blatter also agreeing that it should go to a third world country for development purposes and more than anything else to leave a legacy to build on,” he said.
Chung said it wasn’t easy to convince the executive committee as most of them never heard of PNG.
“They wanted to know whether we had adequate facilities, modernised hospitals, and security measures….all this Sweden had. However I debated hard for this with the guarantee from Prime Minister Peter O’Neill that we would deliver,” he added.
“If we deliver it will be a case study for other developing countries to use as a template… soccer in PNG has in fact opened the door for PNG to showcase itself to the world,” he said.
Chung said it is important that PNG is united in this challenge for economic prosperity amongst other benefits as the elevation on the global sporting roadmap will be huge.
“We must meet the standards and I believe the National Government will take this onboard,” he said.
He would not put a finger on the proposed budget to stage the event slated for late next year, but did indicate it could be in the region of K30 to K40 million in a combined budget by PNG and FIFA.
PNGFA General Secretary Dimirit Mileng said that once the National Government confirms the LOC management structure and Chief Executive Officer, the ball will start rolling.