SPORT – Barnabas Youwe Stadium is one of the arenas used as a venue for soccer at PON Papua 2021. The stadium is located in Jayapura Regency which is not far from Sentani International Airport, Jayapura. Barnabas Youwe Stadium has a capacity of 4 thousand spectators and was built in 2005, Barnabas Youwe Stadium is the headquarters of one of the soccer clubs in Jayapura, Persidafon Dafonsoro.
Persidafon Dafonsoro was formed in 1970 and witnessed the emergence of a football team from Jayapura Regency in the highest caste of Indonesian football in 2010 in the Super League era before being relegated again in 2013.
In 2011 was Persidafon Dafonsoro’s most successful season in the highest caste of Indonesian football after successfully ranking 10th in the Super League final standings, after several seasons appearing in the highest caste, Persidafon Dafonsoro finally had to be willing to go down the caste in the 2013 season and is currently in the bottom caste, precisely in the Indonesian League 3 Competition.
Jayapura Regency Regent Mathius Awoitauw said he is currently trying to revive Persidafon Dafonsoro to be able to appear in the highest caste of Indonesian football, he said in 2020 he would make Persidafon Dafonsoro to focus on early age coaching because of limited funds in building the club, “For Persidafon Dafonsoro, we pay attention to amateurs first or early age coaching, because the Regional Original Revenue (PAD) is only Rp 70 billion” said Mathius.
Barnabas Youwe Stadium is currently projected as one of the venues for the 2021 PON Papua which will hold soccer. Head of Jayapura Regency’s Land, Housing and Settlement Area Office (DP2KP), Terry F. Ayomi explains, “We built this stadium from 2005, we have no connection with PON, but the capacity is already at the National level, starting from the foundation, until the grass is of international standard, the size of the
stadium is also of international standard, in 2019 and 2020 we only added the roof of the western stands and the eastern stands which were made from scratch, then we rehabilitated the lights and also repaired those that were not yet lit, if the lighting capacity is above 1,500 Lux, so that the standard has exceeded the Lux standard, because the Lux standard is 1,500, we have 1,600 Lux, so Barnabas Youwe Stadium is ready to be used to support sports matches at the 2021 Papua XX National Sports Week (PON) event,” said Terry.
Barnabas Youwe Stadium is the organizer of the men’s football branch of PON Papua XX 2021 along with Mandala Stadium and Mahacandra Stadium in Jayapura City. Barnabas Youwe Stadium held matches from Group C which was filled by East Kalimantan, Aceh, North Sulawesi and Bengkulu.