Lahi United FC, currently known for sponsorship reasons as Snax Lahi United FC, is a semi-professional association football club based in

Lae Lae (, , later ) is the capital of Morobe Province and is the second-largest city in Papua New Guinea. It is located near the delta of the Markham River on the northern coast of Huon Gulf. It is at the start of the Highlands Highway, which is ...

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...

. The club was founded in 2017. The side made their competitive debut in the inaugural edition of the

Papua New Guinea National Premier League The National Premier League was the flagship competition of the Football Federation Papua New Guinea (FFPNG). It was a semi-professional league. It was founded in 2017 after several clubs broke away from the Papua New Guinea Football Association ...

, finishing 5th in the Northern Conference. In 2019, they took part in the 2019 edition of the

Papua New Guinea National Soccer League The Papua New Guinea Premier Soccer League is the men's top division of professional association football, soccer in Papua New Guinea. It is a nationwide league formed in 2006 by Papua New Guinea Football Association. It replaced the Papua New ...

, finishing 4th in the Northern Conference.

History

The club was founded sometime in 2017, shortly before the first edition of the

. The side were drawn into the Northern Conference alongside the likes of Markham FC,

Morobe FC Morobe United FC, formerly known as Blue Kumuls (1970s–2005), Shorncliffe Blue Kumuls (2005), Tuguba Laitepo Blue Kumuls (2006), Morobe Kumuls FC (2007), Gigira Laitepo Morobe FC (2008–2014, exc. 2011–12 season), Gigira Laitepo Central Coas ...

and Laiwaden FC, but had a poor season despite high expectations. They picked up three victories, against Morobe, Laiwaden and Bulolo United, but could only finish fifth out of six teams, failing to qualify for the next stage. In late 2018, it was revealed that the side, under the new name of Snax Lahi FC, had expressed their interest in competing in the 2019 National Soccer League. Their official application was later accepted, and they were drawn into the Northern Conference. The side made a decent start to their campaign, drawing 0–0 with former NPL rivals Markham FC on the opening day, before a 2–0 victory over Besta PNG United on 2 February. However, their form trailed off as they lost three of their next four games. In March 2019, chairman of the club Giob Gariki died after suffering two heart attacks.{{Cite web, url=https://www.thenational.com.pg/lae-soccer-mourns-gariki-death/, title=Lae soccer mourns Gariki death, date=2019-03-19, website=The National, language=en-US, access-date=2019-03-31 Their immediately subsequent match against Markham FC was postponed. The club eventually finished 4th out of eight teams in the Northern Conference, with four wins, three draws and six defeats, some way off the points required to qualify for the playoffs.

Domestic Record

National Competitions

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

: ''Northern Conference:'' 4th *

** 2017: ''Northern Conference:'' 5th

References

Soccer clubs in Papua New Guinea Association football clubs established in 2017 2017 establishments in Papua New Guinea