Tue, 29 Aug 1995

PSSI to help place RI's soccer cream

JAKARTA (JP): The All-Indonesia Football Association (PSSI) is discussing ways to deploy national junior soccer players who have completed their training stint in Italy.

"A special team will be set up to discuss it. We hope that a decision can be reached by and announced on Sept. 1," Nirwan Bakrie, the man who mastermind the teenagers' two-year stint, told reporters yesterday.

Half of the 20-strong Italian-trained players have yet to find any clubs to play with. One player, Kurniawan Dwi Yulianto, has signed with Swiss premiership side FC Lucerne. Four players have joined Swedish clubs. The rest of them have confirmed that they would like to return to their provincial clubs.

PSSI initiated the program in a bid to develop world-class booters by sending a selected under-19 team to Italy to train intensively with soccer giant Sampdoria and join the Italian junior league, Primavera.

Once they are older than 19, they are no longer eligible for the program.

Nirwan said the special team is needed to conduct a fair deployment of players because the recipients, mostly Indonesian league clubs, differ in their financial capacities.

According to Nirwan, one club wanted to take all of the young players. He did not give the name of the club.

Nirwan also refused to disclose the transfer fees the PSSI would receive as a result of its intermediary activities, saying that the special team had not even started its job.

"One thing is sure. We will require the interested team to sign a two-year contract to employ the players. After that, we will let things go as they will," Nirwan said.

The junior team has completed its second international tour of duty in the Olympic Asia Oceania zone qualifying round. South Korea dashed Indonesia's hopes of making an Olympic appearance in Atlanta.(arf)