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Sports
Notes
Extra Extra - Cambodia
Olympic Committee Denies National Team SEA Games -
November
2005
James Loving - National Radio Text Service - Friday November 11, 2005
Cambodia's Olympic Committee Give Club Team Khemara SEA Games Invitation - NR Top 10 According To Google - FIFA Top 10
SAY WHAT???!!! - CAMBODIAN NATIONAL TEAM KNOCKED OUT OF SEA GAMES BY THEIR OWN OLYMPIC COMMITTEE
What's that saying? All dressed up and no place to go. That's the situation of the Cambodia national football team. In a shocking development the nations Olympic committee has knocked the Cambodian national team out of competing in the SEA Games competition. Cambodian Premiere League champions Khemara was selected to go in their place. The games will begin at the end of November. According to national coach Scott O'Donell the committee is willing to place four national team players on the SEA Games squad.. Khemara the second place finisher of the Cambodian Premiere League regular season and winners of the playoffs that earned them the league championship is Prince Norodom Ranariddh Sihanouk's team. The prince has given financial support to the national side. He is Cambodian Football League president's Ravy Khek's uncle. He is also the president of the Olympic committee. O'Donell said of the decision, "I'm extremely disappointed." The long time ESPN sports analyst became the national team skipper in July to prepare them for the SEA Games. The SEA Games is one of the few competitions the national side has a chance to compete in, the other being the Tiger Cup. Result being they have an opportunity to compete only once a year. That all changed after O'Donell's arrival. His contract was extended after the team competed in the Pre-SEA Games in Bangkok Aug 29th to September 7th. That competition was the first organized friendly on the road that the team has played in during my six years covering them. In June 2003 the Cambodia under 23 squad competed in the Mekong Goodwill Games in Ubon Ratchathani, Thailand that included club teams.. It was a competition is for those countries that border and use the Mekong River. Vietnam, Laos, Thailand and China also competed. Tola May served as the interm Cambodian national coach. His regular responsibility is being the (CFF's) Cambodian Football Federations Director of Coaching and Youth Development. Former coach Joachim Fickert, who was recently in town said the side did play a friendly last year in Phnom Penh against a Vietnam club side. After the Pre-SEA Games competition O'Donell was given an extended two-year contract that runs through July 2008. The agreement is to be paid by a sponsor. After six years of virtually nothing happening for the national team to participate in organized matches or friendly the team got on a roll after O'Donell's arrival. From his first day on the job O'Donell noticed what the team need the most. "They needed to improve on fitness," he said. O'Donell set up a conditioning program. He observed that the team worked hard and responded in a positive way to the challenge noting they liked the gym and the workouts. Their friendly game in Bangkok August 29th against Singapore was their first game under their new coach. It resulted in a close last minute 3-2 loss. "We could have snatched that one," O'Donell said shortly after. In a rematch with Singapore on October 11th in Phnom Penh's Olympic stadium coach Radojko Avra Movia added several of his over 23 players that won the Tiger Cup to the squad resulting in a 2-0 Cambodia loss. After that match O'Donell was happy with the teams progress citing that they lost to the Tiger Cup champions. The silver lining was he saw the progress in the side's conditioning and mental attitude. At that game Ranariddh expressed his desire for the side to be more aggressive and wanted to see the team have more offense and score more goals. The team then played a game against a German club side from a city league October 30th in the sweltering heat of Phnom Penh's Olympic stadium. Cambodia completely outclassed the German side that wasn't in shape enough to deal with the tropic temperature resulting in a 6-0 Cambodia victory. O'Donell was pleased with the goal scoring assault. "It builds confidence scoring goals… putting it into the back of the net," he said after the game. A week later Khemara played the same German team and came away with the same 6-0 result. The Cambodia national squad continued to work hard in preparation for the SEA Games expecting to depart for the Philippines next week on the 16th for the games to commence November 20th but then… the bomb was dropped… on Tuesday November 8th. O'Donell was in a 1pm meeting when he said that he had to prepare for his trip to the Philippines the following week. He was then informed that there was rumor that the trip wasn't going to happen. O'Donell had already turned down an invitation to ESPN's annual party in Singapore citing that he had to go to the Philippines. At 6pm Cambodian Football Federation president Ravy Khek arrived at the teams practice at Olympic stadium and informed them and O'Donell that they weren't going to play in the SEA Games. "The players were shattered, I think they were in shock," O'Donell said. After the bad news, the following day O'Donell was surprised when he received a call from the team inviting him to a get together along Phnom Penh's riverfront. "In my view they're a good bunch of boys," the 38-year-old Australian said. "I have so much respect for the boys. I like them as people as well. They work hard." O'Donell noticed the building camaraderie among the players and a morale building trip to the Cambodian beach resort town of Sihanoukville last month. One could say that this experience is similar to a bride at her wedding waiting for the groom for an hour only to find out that he took off. She had no place to go but home… or crazy. In this case Cambodia's national team was dressed up and worked hard to prepare for the honor of representing their country only to find out that all of their hard work was for naught. Now they have no place to go and nothing to show for their efforts. This is a team that has been treated so rudely and without care over the past few years. In the year 2000 they earned only $100 a month. That figure was later reduced to only $60 a month. When O'Donell took charge they only received $30 a month. Since his arrival they are now receiving $60. When you factor in the time and commitment of the players that are students or have day jobs one could get the impression that their hard work wasn't respected. There was a period that the team wasn't receiving any salary at all from the CFF. They were in a situation where they had to pay for their own gas or transportation out of their own pocket to to go to practice and work for the honor of representing their country and play the beautiful game. There was a time when former coach Joachim Fickert paid the team out of his own pocket to the extent of being owed over $70,000 by the frderation. Some of the players like team captain Sam El Nasai have been through it all…. And now this. So… now what? O'Donell left Cambodia for Singapore today to attend the ESPN gathering he earlier canceled. He plans to return in a week… the week he was to be in the Philippines. He said their next sanctioned test would be the AFC Challenge Cup a competition designed for the minnows of the region scheduled for the middle of 2006 in Bangladesh. The recent events raise several questions. Is the change in the representation of a national team to a club team unprecedented? ? Can a club team replace a national team in a national team competition? Is this an example of ones efforts not being appreciated? It's up to you. There are two sides to every story. Stay tuned. NR's TOP 10 According to Google National Radio's Top 10 stories are: (1) Jim Murray, (2) Royal Palace (3) NBA Trivia, (4) Michael Jordan (5) Jerry West Builds Memphis (6) Freshie Boy & Girl Contest (7) OOPS FAT Did It Again (8) ASEAN Games (9) Cambodian Football (10) Angkor Wat Past Most Mentioned: (1) Walter Payton, (2) Marshall Faulk (3) Barry Bonds (4) Digital Divide Data. FIFA TOP TEN Rank/Team/Points 1. Brazil - 840 2. Netherlands - 797 3. Czech Republic - 783 Argentina - 778 4. Argentina - 778 5. France - 776 6. Mexico - 769 7. USA - 768 8. Spain - 764 9. Portugal - 754 9. England - 754 The next FIFA World Ranking will be published on 23 November 2005 PREVIOUS RATINGS 1. Brazil - 837 2. Argentina - 782 3. Netherlands - 780 4. Czech Republic - 777 5. Mexico - 770 6. USA - 768 7. England - 743 8. Spain - 739 9. France - 737 9. Portugal - 737
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