Questions raised over Nandar's absence in Tiger Cup tourney

Questions raised over Nandar's absence in Tiger Cup tourney

JAKARTA (JP): The Soccer Association of Indonesia's (PSSI)
official in charge of athletes development Nurdin Halid and
national team manager Muhammad Zein agreed to discharge coach
Nandar Iskandar from the team on Sunday evening, after Indonesia
routed Myanmar 5-0 for a semifinal berth in the Tiger Cup match
in Thailand.

PSSI spokesman Eddi Elison said on Monday that the association
had yet to give its approval on the decision before receiving an
official explanation on the matter.

"The appointment of Nurdin as chef de mission, Zein as
national team manager and Nandar as coach were made by the
association. Their contracts were signed by chairman Agum
Gumelar. It is Pak Agum and his executive directors who will
decide if they will sack Nandar and not those two persons," he
said.

Nandar's absence in Sunday's match had raised questions in
Chiang Mai, where the team finished the qualifying round. At
home, his assistant, Dananjaya, has been taking over since then.

Eddi quoted Zein as saying that players were not satisfied
with Nandar's coaching method.

"Nandar's training sessions are considered monotonous. He did
not even give any special instructions to the players before
playing Thailand," he said.

According to rumors Nandar had returned to Indonesia while the
team left on Monday for Bangkok where the semifinals will take
place on Thursday.

Nandar was quoted in Republika daily as saying on Sunday that
he would be ready to withdraw from his post if PSSI decides he
should withdraw.

"I will let PSSI decide. Maybe the best choice for me now is
to withdraw from the team. But I will report to PSSI on our
team's performance since the Asian Cup prequalifying round,
Independence Cup, Asian Cup final and Tiger Cup," he said.

"If we fail again in the Tiger Cup, I think the whole team is
responsible."

Nandar expressed hope that the incident would not affect the
players' fighting spirit.

Many believe that Nandar's dismissal was a consequence of the
team's poor performance against Thailand on Friday when Indonesia
lost 1-4.

Yet his expulsion from the team was predicted by many when
Nurdin independently decided to replace the Bandung-based coach
with Dutchman Henk Wullems in August.

Nurdin's move was widely criticized. PSSI Secretary General
Tri Goestoro finally announced in September that Nandar would
still be coach until the end of his contract in December, while
Wullems will likely coach the team for the 2001 Southeast Asian
(SEA) Games and the 2002 World Cup pre-qualifying round.

Nurdin later argued that hiring a technical advisor for the
national team had been on his agenda since January. He did not
give any reason why he favored Wullems for the job, except for
the fact that Wullems had helped Nurdin's soccer club, PSM
Makassar, to win this year's Bank Mandiri national league title.

Wullems has also a proven track record with the national team.
He helped the team to win the 1997 SEA Games silver.

Following Indonesia's poor performance in the Asian Cup final
in Lebanon, Nurdin, Zein and Nandar had agreed to dismiss seven
players and add three others to the 18-strong team. The three
were picked from PSM. There are now seven PSM players in the team
-- Hendro Kartiko, Bima Sakti, Aji Santoso, Suwandhi HS, Budiman,
Kurniawan Dwi Yulianto and Miro Baldo Bento.

Nandar replaced German coach Bernard Schumm last September
after the Indonesian team only managed a bronze in the 1999 SEA
Games. (ivy)