AC Milan keeping its fans waiting
JAKARTA (JP): AC Milan decided to extend its stay in Singapore for 24 hours and delay its visit here for two international exhibition matches.
"They need more time to recover after their Latin American tour," promoter Eddy Sofyan said yesterday. The Italian Serie A and European champions were scheduled to land at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport yesterday afternoon.
The new itinerary for Milan's 51 member entourage, including 23 players, is due this afternoon. They will join teammate Marcel Dessaily at the Horison Hotel, a beach resort in North Jakarta. Frenchman Dessaily was the first Milan player to arrive, on Monday.
"We intentionally accommodated the Italian team far away from the noisy and crowded downtown," Eddy, who is also a well known TV soccer commentator, said.
Milan conceded a 1-2 loss to Colombia in its last Latin American outing on Sunday.
The first friendly match pits Fabio Capello's men against national amateur champions Persib Bandung and will be staged at the 100,000-seat Senayan stadium on Saturday. Milan will fly to Surabaya, East Java on Sunday for another friendly at the 35,000- seat Tambaksari stadium against a blend of local footballers who play in the semi-professional league.
Capello will bring seven Serie A players from other teams to take the place of the seven Milan players who will be with the Italian national team at the World Cup finals in two-week's time.
Agum Gumelar, chairman of the committee for Saturday's match, said yesterday Eddy had agreed to give Persib Rp 25 million (US$11,700) in addition to its Rp 15 million ($7,000) match fee. The star-studded Italian side will receive $265,000 for its Jakarta trip and another $125,000 for its appearance in Surabaya.
Agum, who is also the amateur league administrator for the All Indonesia Football Association (PSSI) and commander of the National Army's elite forces (Kopassus), said the additional funds for Persib are needed to make up for expenses during its training sessions in the hill resort of Subang, West Java.
The committee chairman revealed guarded optimism that Milan's two matches in Indonesia will run as expected due to a large number of security officials. More than 1,500 police and military officers will watch Saturday's match, while another 1,000 will be deployed on Monday. (amd)