Palace Asks To Immediately Find A Substitute For Kluiver

The PSSI photo archive introduces the new coach of the Indonesian national team. Indonesian national team coach Patrick Kluiver/DOK BETWEEN PHOTOs/Muhammad Adimaja/rwa.

JAKARTA - Minister of State Secretary Prasetyo Hadi welcomed the decision of the All-Indonesian Football Association (PSSI) to dismiss national football team coach Patrick Kluivert after the failure of the Indonesian national team to penetrate the 2026 World Cup.

Prasetyo also asked PSSI to immediately find a replacement to fill the vacant coaching chair.

"The government welcomes PSSI's decision to dismiss coach Patrick Kluivert. And then to get a replacement as soon as possible," Prasetyo said in a video statement as reported by ANTARA, Thursday, October 16.

Prasetyo assessed that the decision was part of an evaluation for the advancement of national football.

He said the spirit of building the Indonesian national team should not recede even though they failed to qualify for the World Cup.

The government, he said, remains confident in efforts to improve the quality of the national team so that the dream of appearing at the quadrennial football party can be realized in the future.

"We must not be discouraged, we must continue to believe, continue to strive to improve the quality of our national team so that it is hoped that in due time what will be the dream of 287 million Indonesians for our national team can compete in the World Cup arena can be realized," said Prasetyo.

PSSI officially sacked Patrick Kluivert and the Dutch coaching team after they failed to bring Garuda's team to qualify for the 2026 World Cup.

In the senior national team, Kluivert was assisted by several coaches from the Windmill Country, including Alex Pastoor and Denny Landzaat as assistant coaches.

"The All-Indonesian Football Association (PSSI) and the Indonesian National Team Coaching Team have officially agreed to end the cooperation early through the mutual term mechanism," wrote PSSI's official website, Thursday.

"This agreement was signed between PSSI and the Parties in the Coaching Team, which was previously bound by a two-year cooperation contract," the official statement added.

This dismissal occurred five days after Indonesia's defeat to Iraq with a score of 0-1 in the fourth round of the Asian zone 2026 World Cup Qualification at the King Abdullah Sport City Stadium, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Sunday WIB.

It was the defeat of both Garuda teams in the fourth round of qualifying after previously being defeated by Saudi Arabia 2-3 in the first match. These two defeats put Indonesia in the final position of Group B standings and were knocked out of competition to qualify for the World Cup.