PSSI's Decision to Fire Indra Sjafri Is Spotlighted by Vietnamese Media
JAKARTA - PSSI's decision to end its cooperation with Indra Sjafri as coach of the Indonesian U-23 National Team has attracted the attention of Vietnamese media. Indra Sjafri was removed because he was considered responsible for the team's failure at the 2025 Thailand SEA Games.
From the decision of PSSI to end cooperation with Indra Sjafri, Vietnamese media highlighted the poor performance of the Indonesian U-23 National Team in the Southeast Asian sports festival.
"Despite bringing a fairly capable player material, a combination of local and diaspora talent, they failed to show an impressive performance (in the group stage)," wrote one Vietnamese media, Tuoi Tre, quoted Thursday, December 18, 2025.
The same source also touched on the irony that the team that won the gold medal at the 2023 SEA Games was unable to save itself.
In fact, they also compared the Garuda Muda team's goal record which lost compared to the Malaysian squad who qualified through the second best ranking in the group stage.
Another Vietnamese media, The Thao 247, actually called Indra Sjafri's dismissal an expensive step that must be paid for. The reason is that PSSI had previously ousted two big names from the Indonesian National Team's head coach's seat, namely Shin Tae-yong and Patrick Kluivert.
"Although it is not mentioned specifically, the federation (PSSI) must also pay the coaching staff they fired. This clearly leads to a growing (financial) loss," wrote The Thao 247.
On the other hand, the same media wrote that the termination of Indra Sjafri's contract was considered appropriate. This is considered in line with the momentum of improvement in the Indonesian National Team after experiencing a crisis.
After ending the cooperation with Indra Sjafri, PSSI indeed has plans to recruit an Indonesian U-23 tactician who is also a package with the coach of the Indonesian senior national team.
This policy is in line with the agenda of restructuring the Indonesian National Team's performance in the future.