IRAN FRIENDLY FOR INDONESIA IN OCTOBER

The Indonesians will take on Kuwait in the pre-Asian Cup 2011 qualifiers on 14 November (away) and 18 November (at home).

“We have contacted the FA of Iran and they have agreed that the friendly match will be played in October,” said Nugraha Besoes, the general secretary of the FA of Indonesia (PSSI).

PSSI have had to arrange for the game against Iran following the cancellation of matches against Hong Kong, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and a club from Argentina.

But while the PSSI are focusing their energy on giving the national team the best possible preparation in the run-up to the qualifiers, they have also decided to be pragmatic.

They have made the decision to allow the national players to play for their respective clubs for the Indonesia Super League 2009-2010 in between national training.

“The players will still be allowed to feature for their clubs – this is only a fair decision following the brainstorming session we had with the clubs from the Liga Indonesia recently,“ added Nugraha.

The 25 national players will be allowed in and out of national training in stages from 25 Sept 2009 onwards before reporting in for the pre-Asian Cup 2011 qualifiers from 26 October to 18 November 2009.