PSSI to hire foreign technical director
PSSI to hire foreign technical director
JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Soccer Association will hire a
foreign technical director to improve the technical skills of
national coaches, the association's secretary-general Nugraha
Besoes told reporters yesterday.
"We have three choices for the position but the association
will announce who will fill it at our presentation meeting,"
Nugraha said.
The three choices are Romano Matte of Italy, who has been
coaching the national team, Burkhard Pape of Germany and duo
Dutch coaches Bert van Lingen and Arno Pijpers.
"They all have good reputations as coaches in their respective
countries," he said.
Pape coached the Indonesian junior team from 1983 to 1989.
Since 1968, he has been coaching many Asian and African junior
teams such as in Egypt, Uganda, Sri Lanka and Thailand.
The Dutch national soccer association has offered "a package"
of coaches comprising van Lingen and Pijpers.
"The association itself offered me the duo," Nugraha, who
visited the Netherlands and Germany last month, said.
The Dutch duo also has an excellent reputation. Van Lingen was
the assistant of Rinus Mitchel and Dick Advocaat, Holland's
renowned coaches. Pijpers was a former coach of PSV Eindhoven
junior and Feyenoord junior, two of the leading teams in the
Netherlands.
According to Nugraha, if Indonesia hires the duo, van Lingen
will probably be accompanied by his wife, Vera Pauw, who is the
captain of the Dutch Women's soccer team.
"I think she can help us revive our women's teams, which have
been inactive for four years," he said.
Nugraha, however, did not disclose how much the contract is
worth.
"It's confidential," he said.
Nugraha said that the association's presentation to be
attended by the association's officials, soccer buffs and
journalists, will name the person to be appointed director. The
position carries a four-year contract.
"We have to be realistic with our own financial capability,"
he said.
"If we want a reputable coach we can't get him at a cheap
price," he added.
Nugraha said that within two years the technical director
should have groomed coaches throughout the country.
He added that it is a long-term program and promised that the
association would not dismiss the technical director before the
end of the contract.
Nugraha expressed his hopes that the technical director would
be able to help the association establish a qualified junior
team.
He said that junior players have to be groomed in clubs before
joining the national first division or the national team.
"It's a pity that our clubs don't have their own junior
teams," he said. (05)