Bima Sakti (left) (Antara) - Luis Milla (JP/Seto Wardhana)

A lack of time appears to be the main reason behind the Soccer Association of Indonesia’s (PSSI) replacement of Spaniard Luis Milla with Bima Sakti as head coach of the national team, a move that has surprised the country’s soccer fans.

PSSI deputy chairman Joko Driyono told The Jakarta Post in an interview on Monday that the association urgently needed to appoint a coach ahead of the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) Suzuki Cup, which will start on Nov. 9, after Milla failed to return to the country on the due date to resume coaching the national team.

“Time is up. We had a deadline for Luis to get here. At first, we demanded [he] return on Oct. 9 and even extended it to Oct. 12 and 16. We respect his decision but we don’t really have much time,” he said.

After leading the country’s Under-23 team to finish in the round of 16 at the 2018 Asian Games, Milla returned to Spain with his family with his status as the national team’s head coach in limbo. His contract as head coach ended after the Jakarta-Palembang Asian Games, which closed on Sept. 2.

After conducting an evaluation and finding that the national team had improved under Milla, the association decided to extend the coach’s contract for another year. The PSSI planned to keep him on at least until the upcoming Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in the Philippines next year.

However, the association has surprised the public by appointing former national team player Bima as Milla’s replacement. In the official announcement of Bima’s appointment on pssi.org, the association did not elaborate on the reason behind the decision. Milla once managed the Spanish U-21 team.

On Sunday night, Milla bade farewell to Indonesia and its national soccer team on its social media accounts with criticism targeted at the PSSI.

He said it had not been an easy day for him to learn that he would not continue coaching the team.

In the statement, Milla also expressed his disappointment of the association as he claimed that it had a poor management system.

“A project of more than a year and a half has come to an end, where despite the poor management, constant breaking of the contract and low professionalism of the leaders, over the last 10 months, I leave with the feeling of having done a good job,” Milla stated, adding that Indonesia would always be his
second home.

When asked about Milla’s disappointment, Joko declined to comment, saying that he did not want to speculate on anything regarding Milla’s statement.

“Luis is a great coach. We learned a lot from him. The PSSI thanks him [for his contribution] and now we have decided to hire Bima. Indonesia now should focus on Bima Sakti,” he said.

Joko later confirmed that Bima, who was previously Milla’s assistant in the U-23 team, would manage the national team until the end of the AFF Cup.

He went on to say that Bima had been appointed as a result of his experience in assisting Milla in the team.

“The team preparing for the AFF was the Asian Games’ squad. Bima has been involved with the team from the very beginning. And in the previous trial matches against Hong Kong, Mauritius and Myanmar, we believe that Bima fulfilled the requirements,” he said.

Indonesia is aiming to win its first AFF trophy after finishing as a runner-up five times in the biennial tournament.

Responding to this target, Bima, who admitted that his appointment was a surprise for him, said he had designed a program for the team, which will start training in early November.

“We will go to Singapore on Nov. 6 for the preparations as we will have our first match on Nov. 9,” he said as quoted by Antara.

Popular

Is Indonesia really ready to embrace dual citizenship?

Palm oil plantation-less mills lead to increase deforestation

Prabowo inaugurates construction of Majapahit palace replica