Realizing The Limited Number Of Indonesian National Team Players, PSSI Will Selectively Choose Agenda

Indonesian national team. (Photo: Twitter/@PSSI)

JAKARTA - PSSI General Chair (Ketum) Erick Thohir said the federation would be more selective in choosing the agenda to be followed by the Indonesian national team. This relates to the limited number of Garuda squad players.

PSSI will limit events that are not included in the FIFA agenda and are not priorities. "(PSSI) is also discussing how the very busy schedule between the FIFA schedule, the league schedule," said Erick Thohir.

"We also have to think that there will be schedules for the FIFA calendar," continued the Minister of SOEs when met at the Madya Stadium, Senayan on Friday, September 8, 2023.

"So we review which non-FIFA calendars are indeed strong or targets between those that will be undertaken," he said again.

One real example related to the lack of players in the national team was when the Garuda squad appeared in the U-23 AFF Cup. In that match there were only 16 players left and could be played in the final. In fact, most of the teams appeared in matches with 23 players.

In the period of September, the Indonesian national team was also faced with a very busy schedule with various tournaments in several age groups. The tight schedule that is not comparable to the number of players available makes Erik Thohir and the federation must be good at turning their brains so that bsia divides the entire player.

"The number of our players is not thick yet. For example, in U-17 there are 40 equal players, U-20 40, the national team 60, we can break up the team. Only now that we have an example of a senior player with three injuries, we have to take it from U-23. What does that mean? It's thin (the number of our players)," he said.

"So we review which non-FIFA calendars are indeed strong or the targets between," explained Erick again.