National team to be taken to Malaysia by private plane

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The Indonesian national football team will be taken to Malaysia for the first leg of the final round of the ASEAN Football Federation Suzuki Cup on December 26 by private plane, Nurdin Halid said.

"They will go on a private plane to minimize physical fatigue. If they are taken by commercial plane it is feared they will be tired because they have to wait quite long at the airport," the general chairman of the All Indonesian Football Association (PSSI) said here on Monday.

He said the decision was taken with a view to really making the players fully ready to meet the match in Kuala Lumpur. He said the players would only have a day to exercise namely on December 25 while in Kuala Lumpur. Nurdin did not elaborate further on the private plane.

He said secretary general Nugraha Besoes and three advance team members would visit Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday to prepare what the team might later need there.
Besides preparing accommodations and transportation they would also coordinate would-be supporters in Malaysia which would likely be dominated by the country`s migrant workers there.

"Nugraha will visit the Malaysian Football Federation (FAM) to discuss the matter including efforts to accommodate would-be Indonesian supporters in Malaysia as well as from outside Malaysia," he said after meeting with PSSI executive committee members and organizing committee members.

Regarding the Indonesian team`s supporters in Malaysia he said efforts would be made so that the local committee could give certain facilities to them to avoid any eventuality including a security system.

"And to the national team a place for exercise and security system. We have prepared five special security personnel for the team ourselves that would guard them nonstop for 24 hours," he said.

Among incidents that could happen are disruptions by spectators through laser beams directed to the eyes of players like what the Vietnamese team has experienced during its semifinal match in Kuala Lumpur recently.

"If the laser beams are to emerge again we will stop playing. Nugraha Besoes and friends will convey this to FAM," he said.(*)