PSSI to dissolve Primavera team

PSSI to dissolve Primavera team

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia's junior soccer team, the country's
dream team upon which all hopes and best wishes have been piled,
must now stop dreaming.

The All-Indonesia Football Association (PSSI) has decided to
dissolve the team, known as PSSI Primavera. The team earned its
Italian name due to their stints in Italy with soccer giant
Sampdoria and their participation in Italy's youth soccer
competition, Primavera, Italian for spring.

"The decision will take effect as of Aug. 29," Soeparjo
Pontjowinoto, the association's secretary-general, told reporters
on Thursday.

He did not elaborate why, but apparently it was due to the
team's 1-0 loss to South Korea in the Olympic Asia Oceania Zone
qualifying round match on Tuesday, which blew away the long-
awaited chance of earning a berth in the Olympic Games in Atlanta
next year.

Those who were not with the team from the start, but later
included and sent to Italy, will be returned to their clubs of
origin without transfer fees, Soeparjo said.

Those who have been with the team from the beginning, but have
no contract with any European club, can join the Indonesian
League's bottom-placed clubs, provided the clubs compensate for
their training fees, he added.

The amount of the compensation will be determined in a meeting
on Sept. 1. "I think there are clubs which will pay if the amount
is, say, only Rp 10 million (US$4,416)," Soeparjo said. He added
that the association will use the money to send its booters
abroad for either training or competition.

Contracts

As for seven players who have secured contracts with some
Swiss clubs, they can continue playing for their new clubs, on
the condition that they must come home to defend PSSI if they are
needed, Soeparjo said.

The association's decision to dissolve the team will put an
end to the endless debates as to whether or not the PSSI
Primavera training project in Italy, on which billions of rupiah
have been spent, should be continued.

Soeparjo implied that he disagreed with the project.
Monitoring players' development from the age of 15 will be a
better way of training, he said. He also disagreed with Nirwan
Bakrie's opinion, who said that the project was necessary because
junior league competition in Indonesia does not work well and so,
the need to include them in Italy's junior competitions. Nirwan
Bakrie is the head of the PSSI Primavera project.

Soeparjo said that improving junior competitions would pay
more. The top players, who emerge from the competitions, can be
sent abroad for further training, he added. But most importantly,
junior competitions must work first. This is crucial to the
development of national soccer, he asserted.

PSSI Primavera players will take on Hong Kong in their last
pre-Olympic qualifying round match in Hong Kong tomorrow. But
whatever the result, it seems that for them, spring has turned to
autumn, if not winter (arf).