Indonesian Football Federation fires coach Kluivert

(Dan Tri) - The Indonesian Football Federation (PSSI) officially announced the dismissal of coach Patrick Kluivert, after the Dutch coach and the archipelago team were eliminated from the 2026 World Cup.

This decision was announced by PSSI this afternoon (October 16). In an announcement posted on PSSI's homepage and on the organization's official fanpage, PSSI informed: "The Indonesian Football Federation has officially stopped cooperating with the entire coaching staff of the Indonesian national team."

PSSI fired coach Kluivert after only about 10 months of work (Photo: Reuters).

“Coach Kluivert and his colleagues will no longer work for the national teams, the U23 team and the U20 team of Indonesia. The termination of the two-year contract with the coaching staff of the teams by PSSI is in line with the development direction of Indonesian football,” PSSI added.

Mr. Patrick Kluivert has only been in charge of the Indonesian national team since January this year, replacing coach Shin Tae Yong (Korean).

At that time, PSSI's dismissal of coach Shin Tae Yong and his replacement by coach Patrick Kluivert was considered a mistake and a hasty decision. The above assessment was based on the fact that Mr. Kluivert had never made a name for himself in his career as a top football coach.

The Indonesian team failed to qualify for the 2026 World Cup (Photo: Reuters).

PSSI mainly wants to rely on Mr. Kluivert's reputation as a player, to find a weighty voice against the naturalized Dutch players that the Indonesian team uses.

As a result of this wrong decision, the Indonesian team lost both matches in the 4th round of the 2026 World Cup Asian qualifiers, against Saudi Arabia (2-3) and Iraq (0-1). These losses caused the team of the archipelago to be eliminated from the World Cup next year.

PSSI added: “We thank coach Patrick Kluivert for his contributions to the Indonesian national team over the past months, and wish him and his colleagues every success in the upcoming stages of their careers.”

Notably, coach Patrick Kluivert was not in Indonesia to receive the decision to dismiss him from PSSI. After the 4th round of the 2026 World Cup Asian qualifiers in Saudi Arabia a few days ago, coach Patrick Kluivert went straight to Europe, not back to Indonesia.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/the-thao/lien-doan-bong-da-indonesia-sa-thai-hlv-kluivert-20251016131208848.htm