Laiwaden FC is a semi-professional

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

club based in

Madang Madang (old German name: ''Friedrich-Wilhelmshafen'') is the capital of Madang Province and is a town with a population of 27,420 (in 2005) on the north coast of Papua New Guinea. History Nicholai Miklukho-Maklai was probably the first Eur ...

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 2017

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 ...

, where they finished 4th in the Northern Conference.

History

The club was founded in 2017, shortly before the inaugural season of the

. The side was drawn into the Northern Conference, alongside the likes of

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 Markham FC, and opened their season with a 1–1 draw against Lahi United. Their first ever competitive win came in the third gameweek, with the side winning 1–0 against Bulolo United, which sparked a run of three consecutive victories. The side struggled in the second half the season, however, winning just one game and eventually finishing fourth. The side was one of four teams in the Northern Conference of the 2018 National Premier League season, which was stylised as a 'Champions League' and took place on three consecutive days in 2018. The side finished bottom of their pool, drawing only one game, with eventual finalists Morobe FC. The club was one of eight teams drawn into the Northern Conference of the

2019 Papua New Guinea National Soccer League The 2019 Papua New Guinea National Soccer League, known for sponsorship reasons as the Kumul Petroleum Holdings Limited National Soccer League, was the 13th edition of Papua New Guinea National Soccer League, the top-tier football league in Papua ...

. The side won their first game on 16 February 2019 with a 2–0 win over former National Premier League rivals Markham FC, and went unbeaten for four weeks, including victories against Morobe Wawens and Besta PNG United, until a 4–2 defeat to reigning champions Toti City on 16 March. On 30 March 2019, the club's goalkeeper Mikes Gewa was kicked in the ribs by Morobe Wawens' Jason Farrock, and the player was hospitalised. The player died just under a month later in hospital.{{Cite web, url=https://www.rnz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/388197/sport-png-footballer-dies-following-on-field-injury, title=Sport: PNG footballer dies following on-field injury, date=2019-05-01, website=

RNZ Radio New Zealand (), commonly known as RNZ or Radio NZ, is a New Zealand public service broadcaster and Crown entity. Established under the Radio New Zealand Act 1995, it operates news and current affairs station, RNZ National, and a classica ...

, language=en-nz, access-date=2019-06-23 Thereafter, the season went downhill, with the club winning just one of their remaining five matches, eventually finishing 5th in the conference.

Domestic record

National competitions

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 ...

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:'' 5th *

** 2018: ''Northern Conference'': 4th ** 2017: ''Northern Conference:'' 4th

References

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