Mind the dog-shit

It's that time of year again when I get intensely annoyed that this player or that player is playing for a university team in the local educational institutions cup competition in Cambodia. I think it's called the National Football Championships and involves 24 teams from higher educational institutions, technical colleges and provincial teacher training centers. I'm told it starts this week. I've written about this before, and here's what I've said previously. What we have is the ridiculous situation that a lot of the country's very best players, even those in the Cambodian national team, are turning out in mickey mouse games for various university teams, risking injury and tiredness, playing on ill-kept pitches covered in dog-shit, etc, in the middle of the C-League season. I am gob-smacked that this is allowed to happen. I believe it's tied to getting a scholarship to study at a particular university. However, the idea of contracted professionals essentially being forced to represent their university, or else they may lose their study place, is nonsensical in the extreme to anyone that has an inkling of what professional sport is all about. In my view, this has got to stop, players must not be forced to play these farcical matches or else it will continue to devalue the sport and their own professional league. Players on contracts can play for their club and their national teams and that's it. They can't go down the park and play with their mates, they can't play in futsal competitions and they can't play for PUC against AEU, or whatever these university teams are called. If the question is about funding the individual's further education, then that is something he should build-in as part of his professional contract, or pay the university study fees himself. Both the clubs and the football federation have got to be much stronger on this. Bottom line, no contracted player should be allowed to do it. This is a perfect example of where Cambodian football needs to step up into a new era of professionalism.

In training

The AFC A license coaching course has come to Phnom Penh. With 26 participants and overseen by an AFC instructor alongwith Naga coach Prak Sovannara, the course will last from today until 7 March at Cheng Meng. And it's pretty intensive according to Phnom Penh Crown coach David Booth, who successfully completed the same course in November in Manila. For him it was a 27-day straight through course and with just 4 successful passes out of 18 participants, the bar is raised high. So the coaches taking the current course will have their work cut out to pass. The participants include goalkeeping coach Prak Sovanny and player Hok Sochivorn from Phnom Penh Crown, Sochivorn's brother Hok Sochetra, a smattering of coaches from C-League teams including the Army, Police, Boeung Ket and BBU, Meas Channa, the Cambodian national team number 2, as well as Sam Schweingruber of the SALT Academy in Battambang.

A little bird has told me that some good news is imminent regarding the absence of one of Phnom Penh Crown's best players, sidelined through a ban that simply should've never been implemented. Too late to help Crown in their bid for the Hun Sen Cup but at least sense has prevailed at last, if the little bird is to be believed. I won't believe it until I see it typed up and signed by every member of the FFC executive committee.

The Hun Sen Cup semi-finals were held at Olympic today. I didn't go, as I had to work. Having the semi-finals of the country's top cup competition in the middle of the afternoon on a Friday stinks. In fact this whole competition stinks. The FFC have completely lost the plot in condensing it into a matter of days. For the record, the two obvious teams won through to Sunday's final, namely Preah Khan and Naga Corp. PKR beat National Police 4-0 with that man Laboravy getting two more goals to add to his growing tally. In the other semi, Naga, with Chhim Sambo netting twice, overcame Chhlam Smuth 4-0 as well. Just to make you laugh out loud, the 3rd place play-off is tomorrow, so the Police and Chhlam Samuth have to play again, 24 hours after their hard-fought semis. The FFC really are taking the piss.

Doing it the right way

David Booth comments on his new-look squad

Phnom Penh Crown are the only club to hold a pre-season press conference. One of the reasons is that Crown are determined to adopt a professional outlook to how they approach the sport, another is to generate interest and develop a club identity and partisanship. We need to drag Cambodian football kicking and screaming into the professional era. Whether you like us or not, PPCFC will continue to do things the right way. Today's press conference at the Crown Sports Bar on Street 200 saw eight television stations and numerous printed and online media in attendance. Later in the evening I saw the event as the first item on the Bayon TV sports news, even nosing ahead of the Barclays Premier League. And this is what we want to achieve, promoting our own football, Cambodian football, ahead of the 24-hour, wall-to-wall football that's beamed in from overseas.

At today's press conference, I did a brief introduction, with Vann Piseth translating before handing over to Crown president Rithy Samnang, who spoke about the club's recent track record of success and the desire to increase the Crown branding with a new restaurant opening up in a couple of weeks opposite the Olympic Stadium. The construction of two Futsal pitches at the club's training headquarters is another soon to be completed addition. A new electronic scoreboard at the Olympic Stadium will also carry the Crown name. The president also spoke about the club's achievements in the AFC President's Cup and confirmed that he was keen to host one of the competition's qualifying groups this season, as he did last year. He also thanked and named the club's sponsors.

The club's head coach David Booth then spoke about his playing squad ahead of the new season and answered questions from the media. Amongst his comments were the following: "We have 13 new players, all of them are at a young age and due to circumstances, we have decided to look to the future with a much younger team this year. The Hun Sen Cup will give us the opportunity to check out our new young players and see how they perform. The players from last season did a fantastic job for me and the club, but we have decided to bring in new younger players for the new season, as well as give the reserve players from last season, a chance. It's time to find out if they can play at this level."

He continued: "It's a good time to change things around, to look to the future and if it works, this team can stay together for the next 2-3 years. My senior players are strong in mind and body and they will help the younger ones, who can learn from the senior boys. It's a bit of a gamble, but one we're prepared to take. We want to bring on younger players - Cambodian football needs to do this - but it does mean a lot of responsibility will fall on the shoulders of our senior players. But they are strong enough."

David Booth spoke about his new-look squad: "If you look at the players we have, it's a very strong attacking line-up. We made many chances last season but didn't convert them, this year we feel that the team is even stronger going forwards. We are looking to play exciting, attacking football. We go out to win every game, we don't worry about the opposition, we concentrate on ourselves. In our team, we have some of the best players in Cambodia and if I was the coach of our opponents, I would be worried if Borey, Sokumpheak, Sok Pheng and Suhana were up against my team. We needed to revamp our midfield and we've brought in attack-minded players. Our defenders are young and lack experience, so they'll have to get up to speed quickly, but you can see the potency of our attacking play."

Four of the Crown squad, Kouch Sokumpheak, Khim Borey, Sos Suhana and Am Oudom, all wearing the new playing strip, then answered questions from the media, before the Academy head coach Bouy Dary spoke about the club's plans to increase the international competition for the Academy boys this year, as well as concentrating on a second intake of young hopefuls towards the end of the year.

A look at the top table, though Rithy Samnang appears to momentarily disappeared

A view from behind the top table at today's event. Photos courtesy of Huy Darith.

Crown's new look squad

The new look PPCFC playing squad in a recent photo with Italy star Fabio Cannavaro

The Phnom Penh Crown 23-man playing squad for the Hun Sen Cup, which begins with a tie against Kratie on Thursday, was announced at a press conference this morning. It looks like this. The new signings are marked with * and the player's previous club is in brackets. More on each player in due course.

Goalkeepers: *Sam Chamrouen (Chhlam Samuth), *Yok Ary (Prek Pra), *Am Oudom (Western University).

Defenders: Chan Dara (Khemara), Soeng Vanthan (Phnom Penh Empire), Sok Sovan (Phnom Penh Empire), Tieng Tiny (Naga), *Vi Lika (Prek Pra), *Thourng Da (Army), *Ngoy Srin (Koh Kong), *Men Seyha (Western Univ), *Maliky Rahan (Prek Pra).

Midfielders: Koem Sophanal (Stung Treng), *Ouk Sothy (Flying Bikes), *Chhun Sovanna (Phnom Penh Empire), *Sos Suhana (Prek Pra), *Ly Kimhor (no previous club).

Forwards: Kouch Sokumpheak (Khemara), Khim Borey (Army), Hong Pheng (Baksey Chamkrong), Sok Pheng (Khemara), Hok Sochivorn (Stung Treng), *Leng Makara (Kirivong).

Conference call

Phnom Penh Crown will stage a press conference tomorrow morning at 11am to announce their new squad for the coming season, including 13 new signings, as well as presenting their new playing kit and sponsors, their 2012 Academy plans and other club news that includes a new Crown-branded restaurant opening soon opposite the Olympic Stadium. Their 23-man squad for the Hun Sen Cup, which starts against Kratie on Thursday this week, includes 10 players remaining from last season's squad, of which only four were regular members of the team that won the C-League Championship (namely Tiny, Dara, Sokumpheak and Sok Pheng). So whichever way you look at it, Crown's team this season is going to be a work in progress from day 1. They certainly don't possess the experienced campaigners that the club boasted last season.

The Hun Sen Cup group matches begin on Wednesday this week. The top eight teams in last year's C-League meet the eight qualifiers from the five regional groups from round 1 of the competition. On Wednesday and Thursday, there will be two games per day at both the Army Stadium and at the Olympic Stadium. In Group A on Wednesday, Chhlam Samuth meet Battambang and Pailin face the might of Naga at Olympic, whilst at the Army Stadium, also known as the Old Stadium, AEU meet the Army and Kirivong face Kampot in Group B. On Thursday, BBU take on Stung Treng, whilst Preah Khan Reach meet Koh Kong, at Olympic in Group C. The 2pm kick-off at Army Stadium will be Phnom Penh Crown against Kratie, followed by the other Group D match, National Police against Boeung Ket Rubber Field. Matches continue for each team with 3 games spaced over five days. The qualifiers move onto the quarter-finals which will take place on 8 February, the semi-finals two days later and the final on 12 February. That's 32 matches squeezed into twelve days of competition. I hope the players are up to the task. The football federation have not exactly given anyone much breathing space.

53 scored, no goals conceded

Crown netted an 11-goal haul with their 2nd half line-up. LtoR Back: Baraing, Piphop, Sodavid, Chanchav, Chanpolin. Front: Noeut, T Chhaya, Muslim, Ponvuthy.

One way traffic was the order of the day as the Phnom Penh Crown Academy team gave their ASPECA opponents a 2nd half thrashing this morning. Just 3-nil ahead at the interval, the 2nd half saw another eleven goals added to make the final score 14-0 and but for some heroics by the ASPECA keeper and defenders, the result could've easily been doubled. The Academy A team continue to dominate the Barclays Capital ISF U-14 Champions League, having won all of their five matches, scoring 53 goals and conceding none. Yeu Muslim took his tally to 12 with six more goals this morning, all coming in the 2nd half. Goal poacher extraordinaire. Joining him in the goal fest after the half-time interval were Pov Ponvuthy, who netted a hat-trick and Orn Chanpolin who strode through from midfield to score twice. In the first-half of thirty minutes, Ken Chansopheak, In Sodavid and Mat Sakrovy were on target, though it took twenty minutes to break ASPECA's stubborn resistance. The Crown B team, in the ISF Premier League, eventually ran out 3-2 winners over plucky KDFO in the later game.

Pov Ponvuthy shapes up to unleash another piledriver

The Academy team that led 3-0 after the first-half against APSECA. LtoR Back: V Samnang, Piphop, Sovann, Sodavid, Sakrovy. Front: Phearath, Chansopheak, Noeut, Rozak.

Pov Ponvuthy races clear of the last defender to net another goal

The Crown B team squad, who beat KDFO 3-2 in a tight match

Itching to return

Khim Borey pictured this morning after training, with his serious face

Phnom Penh Crown striker Khim Borey is itching to get back to playing football after a stop-start season in 2011. Borey joined Crown before the season began from the Army but dithering by the FFC and his former club meant he missed last season's Hun Sen Cup matches and then went on a season long loan to Thai Premier Division newboys Sisaket, at the time under the leadership of David Booth. He returned in time to play in Crown's run to the AFC President's Cup final but wasn't allowed to appear in the club's final bunch of C-League matches. This time around, he's back and itching to improve on his outstanding record in Cambodian football (he was the top-scoring Golden Boot winner in 2008), both at club (five years with the Army) and international level.

Early start

David Booth shows exactly what he's expecting of his players

In a few days time, Phnom Penh Crown begin their 2012 season in earnest. On Thursday of next week they meet provincial qualifiers Kratie at the Army Stadium in the first of three Hun Sen Cup matches in the space of five days. Crown head coach David Booth has been working on fitness, teamwork and tactics for the past six weeks after finalizing his squad following the completion of trials early in December. Gelling more than a dozen new arrivals with the players remaining from last season's squad has been the highest priority. Today's early morning training session was spent practicing a series of free-kick situations, corner-kicks and penalties. Tomorrow's 7am session will be more of the same. On Tuesday next week, the club will hold a press conference with the local media to look ahead to the upcoming campaign, introduce the club's new faces, playing kit and updates from the club's Academy.

In motion for this Khim Borey free-kick

Organizing free-kicks and set pieces is an important part of the team's training

David Booth directing his troops

Wrapping up training with words from the head coach

Grassroots struggle

Equity Weekly is a current affairs television show that is part of a UN and government initiative to promote a culture of democracy in Cambodia. The show is 40 minutes long, weekly, and broadcast on TVK on Sundays at 8pm. This part of a recent programme focuses on grassroots football in the country, and specifically the lack of football pitches. Bouy Dary has a few words to say about the Phnom Penh Crown ground but the main sticking point is the lack of co-operation between the appropriate government ministry and Cambodia's football federation. Without a cohesive development plan geared to providing schools with suitable facilities, grassroots football in this country will continue to lag behind its neighbours. It sounds like everyone is simply waiting for wealthy sponsors to suddenly appear and kickstart a plan into action - which obviously isn't going to happen unless some people get off their butts and do the legwork.