Not a priority, PSSI sends young players to the Asian Games and the AFF U-23 Cup

– PSSI Chairman Erick Thohir emphasized that he had not set a target for the team that would compete in the Asian Games or the U-23 AFF Cup. For the two events, PSSI will send a team of young players under 20 years old or U-20.

For the short term, PSSI chose to maximize their chances of appearing on the U-17 World Cup stage. The event is scheduled to take place from November to December 2023. Tickets to appear on the U-17 World Cup stage were obtained by Indonesia for being the host replacing Peru.

In addition, PSSI is also still preparing the best team to appear in the U-23 Asian Cup qualification event. In the qualifying round, the U-23 Indonesian National Team will face China Taipei and Turkmenistan.

“What are we important? (World Cup) U-17, What are we important? AFC U-23 qualification, if you win (then) qualify for the AFC U-23 Cup in May in Qatar. So, how much goes in, where does it go? Olympics,” said Erick when met by the media crew at the Madya Senayan Stadium, Thursday (6/7/2023).

The opportunity to appear at the Asian Games and the U-23 AFF Cup is expected to be able to give flying hours to the U-20 National Team players. This, according to Erick, is somewhat important considering that the U-20 national team players who are deployed are also designed as coatings for their seniors.

Even though he was not given a target to bring home the title, Erick said that experience in competing was a means to improve the abilities of young players. So if there are more senior age group national team players who are injured, then they are ready to be called upon to fill that position.

“It really takes courage. Yes, you will definitely be insulted later, that’s okay, what’s important is that we have a long-term and short-term strategy,” Erick added.

Apart from plans related to the priority scale of the tournament for the age group national team, Erick also welcomes collaboration with various parties in recruiting young talent players. Including accepting the proposed Garuda Select program to find seeds for players under the age of 14 in forming a stronger national team in the future.

Watch live streaming of BTV programs here