Indonesian soccer is a gold mine, says Asian confederation

Musthofid, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Indonesian soccer is a gold mine but they just don't have the professional miners to polish the gold, a top official of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) said.

"I have very high hopes for Indonesian football. I have confidence in the leadership of Agum (Gumelar) and his committee," AFC general secretary Dato' Peter Vellapan told reporters after conducting the draw for the upcoming Asian Futsal Championship.

The AFC Futsal Championship will be staged in Jakarta next October and feature 15 Asian nations. The drawing ceremony, held at Plaza Indonesia in Central Jakarta, was also attended by Agum Gumelar, the chairman of the Soccer Association of Indonesia (PSSI) and Koko Hadiaono, the general manager of co-organizer McDonald's Indonesia.

During his public appearance, Vellapan, who looked as if he was still savoring Asia's impressive World Cup run in South Korea and Japan, offered a morale booster to PSSI and the national soccer community in general.

At one point, he alluded to the level of soccer that Indonesia might be able to reach, that not even Indonesians would dare to dream about.

"You'll have to work hard to achieve at least a place in Germany in 2006 because you have talent. Indonesia must be able to develop its soccer, and the AFC will try to help you in this area," he said.

Speaking in more detail, Vellapan said that the ideal length for the national competition would be eight months.

"Six months is too short," he said of the Indonesian premier league, which ended last month.

"Another two months is needed for rest. Players want to go on vacation with their families. Those who are injured need to rehabilitate.

"And the eleventh month is to test their condition when we are about to restart competition. We want to test new players. This is the time during which big clubs in Europe have their overseas outing for warmup," he said.

The next Asian Futsal Championship, which will run from Oct. 22 to Oct. 31, has placed Indonesia, top seed in Group C, in the same group with Kyrgyzstan, China, Kuwait and Japan.

Group A sees 2001 runner-up Korea, Tajikistan, Vietnam, Thailand, Iraq, while Group B has defending champion Iran, Chinese Taipei, Uzbekistan, Malaysia and Turkmenistan.

It will the fourth edition of the championship. Iran has won on each of the previous occasions.