Indonesian soccer is a gold mine, says Asian confederation
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.