FIFA TO DONATE USD400,992 TO FFC NEW TRAINING CENTRE

At the contract signing ceremony FIFA was represented by Jeysing Muthiah, the representative from the FIFA Development Office in Kuala Lumpur, and Ouk Sethycheat, the general secretary of the FFC.

The ceremony was held at the current FFC headquarters, located in Chaeng Maeng village on the outskirts of Phnom Penh.

In attendance were representatives from Khmer Nihon Corporation, the company chosen to construct the new centre.

With the signing of the contract, FIFA have granted the FFC USD400,992, which is the second contribution from the international football organisation as part of their Goal Project to develop Cambodian football.

The FFC received USD400,000 from FIFA in 2002 for the construction of the current centre.

The new National Football Centre (NFC) will be on a 15 hectares of land located in Tonle Bati district, Takeo province, about 40 kilometres from Phnom Penh.

Ouk Sethycheat expressed the ambitions of FFC president Sao Sokha for the development of football in Cambodia.

“Our current centre is too small and surrounded by many garment factories,” said Sethycheat.

“That is not good for the players. So the president has decided to find a new place.”

He added that the construction of the new NFC is to include two playing fields and accommodation, changing rooms and a canteen for national team players.

According to Sao Sokha, the FFC are planning to spend around USD2 million for the construction of the new NFC.

Besides sponsorship from the second FIFA Goal Project, the FFC have raised funds from donations by local companies and from the sale of the old NFC land.

“We will spend up to 10 years for the construction of new NFC, depending on the money we have,” added Sethycheat.

In the meantime, the Cambodia national Under-23 team rallied a late fight back to beat Vietnam‘s Division 1 side A Dong Nai
3-2 Sunday in their second friendly game in Ho Chi Minh City.

Head coach Scott O’Donell was clearly elated with the win where they notched their second victory in their training tour of Vietnam.

“We were playing quite well and restricted them to very few chances but conceded two very soft goals after 50 minutes,” said O‘Donell.

“But credit to the players. They showed a lot of character to get back into the game and scored three goals – through Nov Soseila, Kuoch Sokumpheak and Chhun Sothearath – to win the game.”

The U23s will play a few more friendly matches before returning home to Phnom Penh in time for the four-team BIDC Cup that will take place in early November.