PSSI insists on continuing Italian stint
JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Football Association (PSSI) insisted on dispatching junior players to Italy for a second successive period yesterday, despite the failure of their predecessors to meet their targets.
"We agreed to continue the two-year overseas stint as a non- permanent program, until we manage to set up a qualified junior competition," Secretary-General Soeparjo Pontjowinoto told a press conference after a PSSI's plenary meeting yesterday.
The decision appeared to serve as a compromise following severe criticism within the national soccer body, calling for a halt to the project.
All of PSSI's top executives, including Chairman Azwar Anas and project officer of the Italian stint, Nirwan Bakrie, attended the meeting, which lasted almost four hours.
Soeparjo refused to call the Italian stint -- worth Rp 2.4 billion (US$1.09 million) -- a failure, even though the country's cream of the crop failed to qualify for either the under-20 World Cup finals or the 1996 Olympic Games.
"They are not that bad. They scored two wins and just narrowly lost out to mighty South Korea in the Olympic qualifying round," Soeparjo said. "In general, they have improved because seven of them have signed with European clubs," he added.
Soeparjo said that the plenary meeting agreed not to zero in the failures of the maiden project. "We already know our shortcomings and now we want to carry out a well-planned program," he said.
According to Soeparjo, the second batch of junior players would not bear as heavy a burden over becoming the national team as their predecessors did. "It is merely a development program for our junior players," he said.
The second two-year Italian stint will include 20 players selected from the Suratin Cup Under-18 championship, the National Student Games and provincial training centers. They will leave for Italy in October.
Soeparjo admitted that the PSSI had not set a deadline for a well-run junior league, but asserted that the competition will have to start next year.
"We are trying to make it come true as soon as possible, so that we no longer need to send our juniors abroad," said Soeparjo.
A small team of five, comprised of Nirwan Bakrie, Agum Gumelar, Ismet Tahir, Bob Hippy and Nabon Noor, has been assigned to draw up the proposal of the junior league and supervise it.
The league, an improvement on the Suratin Cup, will follow in the footsteps of the national premier league. It will parade 36 city teams which play round robin matches, but a home and away system will not be applied.
The junior league will be funded through sponsorships.
PSSI officially disbanded the national junior team on Monday. Apart from the seven players who signed with European club, three booters returned to their former clubs and another seven are auctioned to premier league clubs for Rp 10 million ($4,545) each.
PSSI also announced yesterday that only two junior players, goalkeeper Kurnia Sandy and defender Aples Tecuari, will be added to the lineup of the national team prepared for the 18th Southeast Asian Games in Chiang Mai. (amd)