PSSI Officially Sudahi Contract Indra Sjafri as Coach of the Indonesian U-23 National Team
PSSI officially ended its cooperation with the coach of the Indonesian U-23 National Team, Indra Sjafri. This decision was announced along with the end of the team's appearance at the 2025 SEA Games.
The news about the end of this cooperation was announced by the Chairman of the National Team Agency (BTN), Sumardji. He said that this decision was made based on the results of the evaluation.
"We agreed to evaluate, the first is the termination, I repeat, the termination of the employment relationship between coach Indra Sjafri and PSSI, with the federation."
"So, regarding the termination of the employment relationship, of course, the rights and obligations in accordance with the agreement, in accordance with the existing contract, are obliged to jointly exercise their rights," said Sumardji at a press conference in Jakarta on Tuesday, December 16, 2025, WIB evening.
English:
The decision to end the cooperation with Indra is inseparable from the poor performance of Garuda Muda in the 2025 SEA Games. Indonesia failed to qualify for the group stage despite the squad promising.
Ivar Jenner and his friends lost 0-1 to the Philippines in the opening match, then won 3-1 over Myanmar. This one win did not make Indonesia U-23 qualify for the semifinals.
The result was considered minor because the team's preparation was very long, even since December last year. The Indonesian U-23 squad was strengthened with players who competed in the 2025 AFF U-23 Cup, which ended up runner-up when it was still managed by Gerald Vanenburg.
After that, Garuda Muda failed to get a ticket to the 2026 U-23 Asian Cup final round so that Vanenburg was finally replaced by Indra for the 2025 SEA Games.
Four international trial matches were preparations before the 2025 SEA Games. Although they had prepared for a very long time, with a change of coach, the effort to back-to-back gold medals failed to be achieved. Therefore, PSSI decided to terminate Indra Sjafri's contract.