Jakarta Casual

Alfred Riedl reminded the Indonesian Football Association on Wednesday that it had been a week since he was fired as national team coach and he was still waiting to get paid.

Riedl and former assistant coach Wolfgang Pikal dropped by unannounced at the office of the association, known as the PSSI. They brought with them a letter that they said was a reminder to the association that it had until Tuesday to resolve the question of compensation or they would go to FIFA.

Riedl and Pikal had wanted to hand the letter to the new PSSI chairman, Djohar Arifin Husin, or his deputy, Farid Rahman, but neither was available. Instead, Pikal gave the letter to a receptionist.

Riedl, who was replaced by Dutchman Wilhelmus Rijsbergen, didn’t answer questions from reporters, but Pikal said they wanted to resolve the matter amicably.

If that proved impossible, Pikal said, he and Riedl would submit a report to FIFA, football’s world governing body.

“We will wait until July 26 for the PSSI’s response, and if the PSSI doesn’t reply, we’ll file an official report with FIFA. Still, we want to end this in the proper way,” Pikal said.

“I’m not disappointed that there weren’t any PSSI official here to meet me. The most important thing is that our rights are honored. We have legitimate contracts on PSSI letterhead that have the signatures of the PSSI vice chairman [Nirwan Bakrie] and secretary general [Nugraha Besoes].”

Riedl’s dismissal came as a surprise to most, especially after Indonesia’s successful run in last year’s AFF Suzuki Cup. The official explanation by Djohar was that the PSSI could not find a copy of Riedl’s contract and suspected the Austrian had only signed a personal deal with Nirwan Bakrie, the PSSI’s former vice chairman.

Meanwhile, Farid, the PSSI deputy, has confirmed that the association now has Riedl’s contract, which the association said had been missing.

He said the official contract was now in the hands of the association’s legal department.

“We have it, but I haven’t seen it. The legal department is examining the contract,” he said. “We’ll settle it in a few days and we have schedule a meeting with Nirwan Bakrie, Riedl and Pikal.”

Riedl still has 10 months remaining on his contract, which was due to expire on May 6 next year. According to the terms of the contract, he was to be paid $16,000 a month.

Pikal also has 10 months remaining on his contract, which expires at the same time as Riedl’s. He also said he wasn’t paid for the four months prior to his dismissal.

In other football news, Liga Indonesia, which runs the Indonesian Super League, met with the PSSI executive committee to report on its activities and plans.

Liga Indonesia’s chief executive, Joko Driyono, declined to discuss the results, saying only that the PSSI should make an announcement on the ISL’s upcoming season.

There has been confusion around the ISL since the PSSI recognized the upstart Indonesian Premier League earlier this month.

FIFA rules say there can be only one top-flight competition in a country and the PSSI has yet to decide how it will handle the ISL and the IPL.

Joko said it was in the PSSI’s interest to decide the format before the Asian Football Confederation holds its annual assessment of professional clubs on July 30.