Primavera to go on, PSSI chairman says

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia's junior soccer team, PSSI Primavera, will be rejuvenated, not totally dissolved as announced previously, according to Azwar Anas, chairman of the All- Indonesia Football Association.

"Due to their age, a number of the players will indeed be sent home. They will be replaced by younger recruits," Azwar said on Friday in Surabaya. Azwar, who is also Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare, made the comment after opening the 10th Haornas/Coca Cola Cup under-16 soccer tournament in the capital city of East Java.

Some players, who are as old as the team's star and most talented striker, Kurniawan Dwi Yulianto, will be transferred to European clubs, which are interested in them, while the remaining players will be channeled to interested clubs in the Indonesian League, Azwar added.

By saying this, Azwar rectified an announcement made yesterday by his secretary-general, Soeparjo Pontjowinoto, that the association had decided to dissolve the team, which will take effect as of Aug. 29.

However, Azwar confirmed Soeparjo's statement that clubs which are interested in using the dismissed players will have to pay to the association. The money will be used to finance the training of younger players, Azwar said, declining to mention an amount.

PSSI Primavera is the association's ambitious project of developing a world-class team, by sending it to Italy for intensive stints with soccer giant Sampdoria. As part of the training program, the team is also contested in the Italian junior competition known as Primavera, by which the team is popularly known here. The project's short-term objective was to enable the team to grab a berth in next year's Olympic Games in Atlanta.

The team, however, fell short of expectations. Being in the Olympic Asia Oceania Zone, PSSI Primavera succumbed to South Korea both in its home, and away matches and lost the chance of gaining the coveted soccer Olympic berth.

In support of Azwar's clarification, Nirwan Bakrie, the man behind the project, who, despite the team's failure, repeatedly refused to say that the project was a fiasco, said on Friday that the second generation of PSSI Primavera, consisting of 20 booters, is now ready to go to Italy to step into the shoes of their forerunners.

Twelve of those were shortlisted from the National Youth Games, held last month in Surabaya, while the other eight were taken from the association's training center.

Nirwan said that as part of preparing them, they are now competing in the Asia soccer championship in Brunei Darussalam. "Unlike their predecessors, they are at least 1.70 meters in height," Nirwan said, stressing that the selection process was far tougher than before but declining to say who selected them.

Bob Hippy, who heads the association's training division, and Soeparjo, said that they both were not totally informed of the new team. (arf)