•    HOME   
•    NEWS   
•    BUSINESS   
•    INTERNATIONAL   
•    TECH   
•    SPORTS   
•    LIFE & TIMES   
•    OPINION   
•    MY JAKARTA   
•    BLOGS   
•    EYEWITNESS   

The date is set and the draws have been made, but Indonesia is still far from being ready to play in the qualifying rounds of the inaugural U-22 Asian Cup.

The tournament for under-22 teams will be staged sometime around June 2013 but the qualifiers will run from June 23 to July 8 this year in seven venues that will be announced later by the Asian Football Confederation.

As many as 41 Asian countries will play in the competition. The AFC divided the teams into seven groups when the draw was made in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday.

Indonesia was drawn against top opponents in Group E, along with two regional powerhouses Australia and Japan, Southeast Asian rivals Singapore and East Timor, and Macau.

But the Indonesian Football Association (PSSI) has yet to determine the players who will be sent to the qualifiers and is still unsure who will coach them.

“I’m still waiting for [PSSI] chairman [Djohar Arifin Husin], who’s still in Zurich, to discuss the competition. I still don’t know the details,” national team coordinator Bob Hippy said on Tuesday.

Bob, who oversees the national teams at all level, was also not sure if the PSSI would send the U-21 national team to play in the qualifiers.

“Right now the U-21 team is prepared to play in the Hassanal Bolkiah Trophy in Brunei. We’ll see their result in Brunei first,” Bob said. “Probably 50 percent of the U-21 players will make up the team [for U-22 Asian Cup qualifiers] with additional players from the U-19 team.”

The Hasannal Bolkiah Trophy, an U-21 competition for Southeast Asian countries, is taking place in Bandar Seri Begawan from Feb. 25 to March 5.

Widodo C. Putro currently coaches the U-21 team but Bob hinted that the PSSI would rather appoint another coach for the U-22 Asian Cup.

“It’s a higher level competition so we’ll need a coach who has more international experience,” Bob said.

Top two teams from each group and the best third-placed team will go to tournament proper. The host country of the 2013 tournament will also qualify to the finals, but the AFC has yet to determine where the finals will be held.

The U-22 Asian Cup Qualifying Rounds

Group A: UAE, Iraq, Oman, India, Turkmenistan, Lebanon

Group B: Saudi Arabia, Syria, Pakistan, Palestine, Kyrgyzstan, Sri Lanka

Group C: Bahrain, Iran, Tajikistan, Qatar, Kuwait, Maldives

Group D: Uzbekistan, Jordan, Yemen, Bangladesh, Nepal

Group E: Australia, Japan, Indonesia, Singapore, Macau, East Timor

Group F: North Korea, China, Thailand, Hong Kong, Laos, Cambodia

Group G: South Korea, Vietnam, Malaysia, Burma, Taiwan, Philippines