David Chung was first elected President of the Papua New Guinea Football Association (PNGFA) in August 2004 in Kimbe and took over from Madiu Andrew as Papua New Guinea’s representative on the OFC Executive Committee.
OFC’s Executive body then elected him to the position of Senior Vice President in 2007 before he was re-elected as PNGFA President the following year.
Born Chung Kim Hiong on 13 July 1962 in Malaysia, he first arrived in Papua New Guinea at age 23 on a business trip while working for a multi-national company involving logging, hotels, retail and wholesale.
The former coach, player and referee had a ready affinity for Papua New Guinea, particularly the Highlands region, and quickly became a resident. He has gone on to develop a variety of successful importing and exporting companies and is married to a Papua New Guinean with five children.
Mr. Chung was involved in Rugby League for a short period but became focused on administering football in the Highlands area where he helped secure outside funding as well as contribute personal finance towards youth development programmes.
Since his election as PNGFA President in 2004, Mr. Chung has worked tirelessly to improve the status of football in Papua New Guinea despite the country’s developing status and geographical challenges proving to be obstacles.
The 48-year-old, who speaks at least four languages, can be credited with implementing a variety of key initiatives including the historic milestone of launching the first ever semi-professional football competition in 2006.
Beginning with five franchises, the PNG National Soccer League aimed to lift the standard of football in the country and, in turn, produce a better level of performance at OFC tournaments.
It has done just that, growing to eight teams and seeing the remarkable rise of Hekari United who defied all odds to become the first Oceania club from outside New Zealand or Australia to win the OFC Champions League and qualify for the FIFA Club World Cup UAE 2010.
Mr. Chung has also been a huge proponent of women’s football with PNGFA support resulting in emphatic results for the national women’s side including back-to-back titles at the Pacific Games in 2004 and 2007. Their U-15 girls side was also chosen by OFC to represent the region at the Youth Olympics in Singapore earlier this year.
Grassroots football has been boosted under Mr. Chung’s tenure with a variety of development programmes being implemented across the country. The OFC U-12 Festival Football was hosted in Port Moresby in 2007, a memorable event drawing 5,000 participants from five different countries.
Whether at grassroots or elite level, Mr. Chung has used football events to raise awareness for social issues such as HIV/Aids which has had a ruthless grip on the island nation in recent times.
On top of the financial support from FIFA and OFC, the PNGFA President has also been attributed with securing significant sponsorship from local businesses to support the federation’s activities.
Finally, Mr. Chung has overseen a series of infrastructure projects including a national football academy in Lae and regional technical centre in Kimbe with plans in place to build an additional regional technical centre in Port Moresby beginning 2011.