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"They offered me the job, but they only gave me part of the contract," said former Vietnam coach Alfred Riedl of his talks with the Indonesian national team.

PSSI Extends Job Offer to Riedl
With 2011 Asian Cup qualifying behind it and 2014 World Cup qualifying ahead of it, the Indonesian national team faces a brief but crucial period of self-evaluation.

Its 1-0 loss at Australia on Wednesday brought to a close an unsuccessful qualifying campaign that saw Indonesia miss the continental championship for the first time since 1992. It also brought down the curtain on Benny Dollo’s second spell in charge of the team.

As part of the rebuilding needed to arrest the slide in the national team’s fortunes, the Indonesian Football Association (PSSI) on Thursday announced it had appointed former Vietnam and Laos coach Alfred Riedl as the new senior and Under-23 national team coach.

“Riedl will be the head coach for both the Under-23 and senior teams starting this month. I don’t think it will be a problem as we will send mostly Under-23 players for international events this year, including the [2014] World Cup and [2012] Olympic qualifiers,” PSSI secretary general Nugraha Besoes said.

“We have to send more youngsters to international tournaments as we will never perform well without proper regeneration.”

However, Riedl said he had not completed any deal with the PSSI.

“[The PSSI] offered me the job, but they only gave me part of the contract. They didn’t give me the full draft, and I haven’t received any more information from them,” the 60-year-old Austrian said in a phone interview with the Jakarta Globe on Thursday.

“It was only the part about the salary and bonus payments, nothing else. If this is going to be a two-year contract, it should be a little more concrete.”

Nugraha cited Riedl’s coaching skill and familiarity with Southeast Asia as the main reason behind the PSSI’s move.

Riedl had three spells in charge of Vietnam (1998-2001, 2003-04, 2005-07) and laid the groundwork for the country to emerge as the rising force in Southeast Asian football. His work bore fruit in December 2008 as Vietnam won its first AFF Suzuki Cup title, overcoming traditional powers Singapore and Thailand en route to the crown.

He also led the Laos U-23 team to a bronze medal in the 2009 Southeast Asian Games, its first SEA Games football medal. The run included the first victory over an Indonesian team in Laos’ history, a 2-0 group stage win.

While details were still scarce, Reidl said he was eager to make the move.

“I would love to come to Indonesia. I have a lot of experience in Southeast Asia and was very successful with Vietnam and Laos. It could be a fruitful partnership with Indonesia,” he said.

The PSSI cannot afford to dawdle, though, as Riedl said he was also in talks with Laos about an extension of his contract, which expired on Jan. 31.

“I still have no firm offer from Laos or Indonesia. I’ve been talking with the Laos FA and the Indonesian FA, but right now the Laos FA is doing more talking,” he said.

Another part of the PSSI’s ongoing shuffle was revealed on Thursday. It claimed the Netherlands Football Association (KNVB) nominated Ruud Krol to be Indonesia’s coach.

Last month, the PSSI approached the KNVB and asked for help in finding a new coach and technical director for the national team.

“The KNVB answered our call for help and nominated Ruud Krol as coach, but we want him to be the technical director. We’ll ask the KNVB to confirm if they agree to Krol’s appointment as technical director,” he said.

Krol, 61, made 83 appearances as a defender for the Dutch national team from 1969 to 1983. He had 339 appearances in 12 seasons with Ajax before finishing his playing career with Napoli and Cannes.

Having previously managed in Belgium, Switzerland, Egypt and France, he is currently the manager of South African side Orlando Pirates.

To give the national team more run-outs, the PSSI announced it would host two international tournaments. The Anniversary Cup will take place on April 2-7 as part of the PSSI’s anniversary celebration, and the Independence Cup will return in August. Nugraha said three teams were invited to each event but gave no further details.

Indonesia begins 2012 Olympic Games qualifying on Sept. 25-30, with 2014 World Cup qualifying beginning in October. Football

Source: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/sports/pssi-extends-job-offer-to-riedl/362013

Lao U-23 Football Team Manager Viphet Sihachackr said yesterday that the team's experience in previous matches will mean they perform at their best in December.

“The test matches might have made people unhappy with our performance, because they think our team is hopeless and has lost to many other teams on previous occasions, but in fact the fans don't understand that we just used those games as practice for the real event in December,” he said.

Mr Viphet said his team didn't need to win those matches, rather they needed to get much more experience, so that after each match coach and team assistant could analyse the game and suggest how the footballers could improve their performance.

Since the tournament in Cambodia in early November, many Lao football fans have complained about the team not playing well enough.

Their complaints were heightened at the most recent match at Chao Anouvong on Tuesday when the Lao team lost 3-1 to Hoang Anh Gia Lia of Vietnam .

“Hoang Anh Gia Lia is an official sponsor of the 25th SEA Games, so they just wanted to send their football team to practice with our team.

“We learnt many things from them because they had many good players,” Mr Viphet said.

Mr Viphet said the team has been playing very well recently and is ready for their first SEA Games match on December 5 against Myanmar , the runner up at the 24th SEA Games in Thailand .

On December 7 the Lao team will face Indonesia and on December 10 they will take on Singapore in the quarterfinal of the SEA Games.

Mr Viphet said Myanmar is a strong contender but the Lao footballers would try their best to win.

“We will be the winner of the match.

“We know Myanmar is strong but because we are the host country we want to stay in the competition as long as possible,” he said.

Mr Viphet said he trusted the ability of his players after they had gained experience locally and abroad.

“We have spoken with other coaches about our athletes, who said they are improving even though they haven't had much time to practice. The Austrian coach said if the Lao team had more time, they would be really good,” he said.

The men's football teams will be divided into two groups. Laos will be in Group B along with Myanmar , Singapore and Indonesia , while in Group A Thailand will play against Vietnam , Malaysia , Timor Leste and Cambodia .

The women's teams will play in only one group, which comprises Malaysia , Thailand , Myanmar , Vietnam and Laos .

By Souknilundon Southivongnorath
Vientianetimes