PPCFC suspend 11

As of today, 8 November 2015, Phnom Penh Crown FC have suspended, for an indefinite period, the following players and officials from all football activities connected with the club:
Players:
Yok Ary, Thourng Da, Sary Matnorotin, Touch Sokheng, Ngoy Srin, Sos Suhana and San Ursaphea.
Officials:
Nguon Chansothea, Bouy Dary, Soeu Siha, Tes Sophat.

Statement from Mr Rithy Samnang, President of Phnom Penh Crown FC:
“I am extremely saddened to announce a severe punishment of an indefinite suspension from all club activities for 7 players and 4 officials of Phnom Penh Crown FC. These suspensions are for gross misconduct and a serious breach of their employment contracts by way of match manipulation and the deliberate harming of Phnom Penh Crown FC’s reputation. This included persuading said 1st-Team players to under-perform in key matches over the past two months, plans to hurt key foreign players in training, as well as using proxies and fake accounts to post negative and inflammatory comments and images on Facebook.

Honesty and integrity are the cornerstones of professional football and we will not tolerate any activities, for whatever reason, relating to the manipulation of football matches and the influencing of match results. Corruption and match manipulation are a poison within sport in general and in football in particular. We want football to be played in an atmosphere where supporters can trust the integrity of the players and the sincerity of the results.
The suspended players and officials have violated the principles of trust, loyalty and sportsmanship and we find this to be totally unacceptable behaviour.
This is an internal matter within Phnom Penh Crown FC and no other club, players or officials are implicated in this action.
This action has been taken with the full co-operation of the appropriate authorities.”

Empowering Asia

HRH Prince Ali at the press conference

I MC'd the press conference for Prince Ali at Raffles Hotel Le Royal this morning. It was the last day of the Prince's three-day visit to Cambodia. As Vice President of FIFA responsible for Asia, but moreso, in his role as Chairman of the Asian Football Development project, an initiative he started himself, the Prince was here to promote and support the fabulous work being done by the Salt Academy and the Mighty Girls programs in Battambang. The AFDP provides sponsorship to the Mighty Girls, who effectively form the Cambodian women's national team. And he was glowing in his comments during his speech at the press conference about the potential he saw in Battambang on Monday, as an example of the empowerment of women through football that he advocates so strongly. He also expressed his admiration for the work Rithy Samnang is doing with grassroots football at Phnom Penh Crown. The common thread is of course Sam Schweingruber who began the Salt Academy and Mighty Girls programs in northwest Cambodia and has now brought that grassroots thrust with him since he joined PPCFC as head coach a few months ago. The Prince remarked that both Samnang and he were of similar ages, with similar dreams and aspirations for the betterment of football, whilst Samnang felt the presence of the Prince at the opening of the new youth league on Sunday morning was a big encouragement for the youngsters to see someone of his world stature at their new competition. Prince Ali also commended the Football Federation of Cambodia, whom he will give 500 footballs to for their grassroots endeavours, with vice president Khiev Sameth confirming that the FFC will begin its own youth academy at the end of this year. Commenting on the problems that FIFA have been experiencing in some quarters, the Prince felt it was healthy that problems are aired and dealt with in a transparent way and that a world body should have no secrets. He spoke positively and passionately about Asian football, emphasizing the importance of focusing on grassroots, infrastructure and developing coaches to uncover the massive potential that exists within the continent. The Prince was seen off at the airport by a contingent of PPCFC staff and players as he headed for his next destination, a grassroots tournament in Bhutan. His time here was brief but memorable for the impact on so many, helping to put Cambodia on the football map on the international stage.

LtoR: Khiev Sameth (FFC VP), Prince Ali and Rithy Samnang (PPCFC President)

Prince Ali with the PPCFC contingent this morning: LtoR: Sam, Andy. Heang, Prince Ali, Samnang, Andrew, Chhi

Prince Ali and his team are seen off by players and officials from PPCFC

Conference call

PPCFC president Rithy Samnang addresses the assembled press corps

It's been a week since Phnom Penh Crown held their press conference to announce the installation of Sam Schweingruber as their new head coach. The Swiss national has been in Taiwan for a few days with one of his girls from the SALT Academy programme that he's been in charge of for the past six years, attending a conference on promoting the rights of young girls in Asia. At the end of this month he'll be heading to the prestigious Peace & Sport Awards 2012 in Sochi in Russia, where SALT are shortlisted for the NGO of the Year. In the meantime, starting tomorrow, Crown will hold three days of open trials for potential new recruits, where Sam and his coaching team will be running the rule over a group of hopefuls with dreams of joining the Crown squad for the coming season. You may recall that nine players were selected from similar open trials last season and most of them went onto play at some point in the Metfone C-League season. 855 Media Group, owners of the 855 Sport & Lifestyle Magazine, were at last week's press conference with their camera in hand, as these photos show.

The top table with coach (Sam Schweingruber), president (Rithy Samnang) and press officer (Andy Brouwer)

Head coach Sam Schweingruber listens to the question

The new PPCFC coach answers in fluent Khmer

PPCFC's press officer (right) asks for more questions

The coach waiting to offer up his view of the future at PPCFC

Rithy Samnang responds to a question with the press officer nearby

The new head coach with his staff. LtoR: Bouy Dary, Sam Schweingruber, Prak Vanny, Kao Kiry

Sam lands the top job

Sam Schweingruber speaks to the assembled press corps in Khmer

Today was the start of a new chapter in the history of Phnom Penh Crown with the appointment as head coach of Sam Schweingruber. Sam, 33, has a proven record of success in Cambodia, having founded the successful SALT Academy in Battambang six years ago. Here is a section of the club's press release providing more background on the appointment:

Born in Switzerland, Sam first came to Cambodia in 2003. Previously, in his home country he played in Third Division Swiss football for Munsterlingen, Oberglatt and Pfyn, though his interest in coaching had already began as a sixteen year old and he quickly passed his C and B coaching licences. He also coached at the FC Winterthur Academy and enjoyed Swiss Cup success at U-14 level before coming to Asia. In Cambodia he played for the Mild Seven team in 2003, quickly reverting to coaching the team and followed that with coaching spells at Royal Navy and Khmer Empire before deciding to open the SALT Academy in Battambang in October 2006.

Under Sam’s guidance, the SALT Academy has gone from strength to strength and has been the catalyst for an explosion of grassroots football in northwest Cambodia. Today, more than 2,000 youths and 1,000 young adults across the region are involved in the community-based football program as well as receiving life skills education and personal development training. The success of the Mighty Girls program, which creates a safe environment for at-risk girls, educates and challenges traditional gender discrimination in football, has been an outstanding success, providing most of the players for the Cambodian Girls national teams that Sam has taken to Laos, Singapore and Vietnam. Since 2009, Sam has been a FIFA Grassroots Instructor, managing courses all over Asia, training the coaches of the future both in grassroots football as well as Futsal. He also completed his AFC coaching A licence earlier this year.

Sam is 33 years old and with his understanding of Cambodian culture and language, he views this appointment as “an opportunity to test myself on a bigger stage, having had a fantastic time developing the SALT Academy and working with grassroots football for the past six years. For my first appointment in senior football, I couldn’t have chosen a bigger or better club to work with. This is a very exciting time and I can’t wait to get started. However, I will not relinquish all my ties with SALT and the Girls national team and Crown are committed to being involved with both in the future.”  Sam will be supported with the coaching duties by the Academy Head Coach Bouy Dary, who will be first assistant coach, as well as Kao Kiry, Tes Sophat and Prak Vanny, all of whom are well-respected former Cambodian national team players.

Phnom Penh Crown President Mr Rithy Samnang believes Sam is exactly the right man to take his club forward. “Sam has achieved fantastic success in grassroots football in Cambodia. He knows what it takes to develop football in the right way, building a sustainable model that is the envy of many other countries. He is the perfect individual to lead our club’s strategic objectives in the future, to develop a professional structure and act as a model for other clubs to follow, to improve the quality of Cambodian football through our Elite Academy and to evolve our fan and community engagement program. This is vitally important not just for Phnom Penh Crown but also for Cambodian football.”

The PPCFC coaching team. LtoR: Bouy Dary, Sam Schweingruber, Prak Vanny, Kao Kiry

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.

Darith's view

Crown head coach David Booth in a lighthearted moment at today's event

Photographer Huy Darith joined the Phnom Penh Crown pre-season press conference this morning and captured these moments in time.

The MC looking forward to the new season

"Does it really take that long to translate a sentence?"

David Booth and Rithy Samnang enjoying themselves

Khim Borey speaks while Kouch Sokumpheak looks on

A view of the top table at today's press conference