Aussie coach wants respect for Cambodia
PHNOM PENH: Despite his on-screen, laid-back demeanour while working as a television soccer pundit, Scott O'Donell reckons his job is one of the toughest in the game.
When away from air-conditioned Singapore TV studios, the lofty Australian has been dealt the unenviable task of turning Asian strugglers Cambodia into a respectable soccer team.
With unfit players, a shortage of cash and only a couple of decent soccer pitches, he says being national team coach is far from a breeze.
Cambodia national soccer team coach Scott O'Donell of Australia explains to players of Cambodia's under-23 national team during their soccer friendly match against South Korea's Ulsan FC at the national stadium in Phnom Penh on Sunday. Despite his on-screen, laid-back demeanour while working as a television soccer pundit, O'Donell reckons his job is one of the toughest in the game. Reuters |
"It's no real surprise Cambodia hasn't had much success. Some of the teams have to train on basketball courts. That's a real struggle when you're trying to develop footballers."
The former Australian, Malaysian and Singaporean league player admits he has his work cut out if Cambodia are to climb from their position of 176 in the FIFA rankings.
His priorities, he says, are to improve facilities, promote professionalism and make his team of students and security guards work harder for their meagre $80-a-month salaries.
"I've tried to instil some discipline and commitment. I've got a great bunch of boys, they're working hard and they're responding well," said the 39-year-old.
"But I have to start right from the bottom because most of the players have never been coached. They taught themselves how to play, so I'm always having to correct their mistakes."
Bumpy pitches
O'Donell admits he is desperate to improve facilities for his team but in a war-scarred country where a third of the people live on less than $1 a day, there is little in state coffers for decent training surfaces.
"Our pitches are bare and bumpy, you can't even pass the ball properly," he said. "We don't need new balls or shirts, just somewhere to play will do."
"I know I've given everything I can to improve Cambodia but everyone has to be realistic. I have limits on what I can do," added O'Donell, who is better known for his work as an English Premier League soccer analyst with Asian cable TV network ESPN Star Sports.
The Australian has endured one of the most tumultuous periods in Cambodian soccer and surprised many in 2005 when he refused to quit following a bizarre intervention by Cambodian Prince Norodom Ranariddh in the run-up to the South East Asian Games.
O'Donell's team had bought flight tickets and were being fitted for suits when Olympic committee chief Ranariddh replaced the squad with his own seven days before the Games.
"He thought his team would do a better job," O'Donell said. "We were so shocked. I wanted to quit and the players wanted to quit. No one had a clue what was going on.
"If I had known that would happen, I wouldn't have come here."
Threatened ban
Cambodia were also threatened with a ban by FIFA following allegations of political interference after military police chief Sao Sohka, a close associate of Prime Minister Hun Sen, was appointed president of the soccer federation in place of the incumbent Khek Ravy, a rival politician.
A defiant Sao Sokha vowed never to bow his head to FIFA but still asked for money to help improve the national team.
O'Donell and his wife adopted two Cambodian children eight years ago and have since settled in Phnom Penh, a colourful city of one million where rich meets poor and French colonial architecture sits close to squalid urban slums.
He says he has adjusted well to life in Indochina and like a true local has been seen arriving for work on an old Honda motorcycle.
O'Donell says he is committed to his job and has set himself the goal of improving his players and helping Cambodia to avoid a heavy trouncing every time they play internationals.
"It's not an easy job but what keeps me going is the faith I have in the players. If I walked out now, I'd be letting them down," he said.
"I want to bring some respect to Cambodia. I don't want them to be the whipping boys of South East Asia."
Agencies
(China Daily 02/01/2007 page23)
