Football has changed a lot says Stoykov

Feb 22, 2016 - 11:11:02 |
New Radiant coahc Iordan Stoykov

Male’, MALDIVES – New Radiant’s new coach Iordan Stoykov Ivanov, who was the coach of New Radiant when they advanced to the semifinal of AFC Cup 2005 has said that football has changed a lot during the past 10 years ahead of their opening game of this year’s AFC Cup against Singapore’s Balestier Khalsa FC.

“Football has changed a lot during the last 10 years and things changed a lot when we compared to 2005.”

“We will take this game very seriously and Singapore team is a very strong team. We started our preparation quite late due to the new management but still we believe that we can win tomorrow’s game.” Stoykov added.

“I hope so and that’s why they invited me to build the new face of New Radiant."

Balestier coach Marco during today's press conferenceBalestier coach Marco during today's press conference

On the other hand Balestier Khalsa’s head coach Marco Kraljevic said that New Radiant is ahead of them and they are very experienced at this level.

“For sure New Radiant is ahead of us and they are very experience but you know in football anything can happen. I am sure if we play as a team tomorrow we can beat them.”

“I have some information about New Radiant and previously Singapore teams have played against New Radiant and they all agree that it will be difficult to play against New Radiant especially in their home ground.” Marco added.

When asked about their preparation he said that they are fully prepared for this game.

“We just played one game and unfortunately we lost that game and we are not fully prepared for this game.”

“We played our first game in the AFC Cup last year and we are a new team but I am sure that there will not be any problem to kick off the tournament from an away game. We are working to progress to next round. For us the main problem will be the kick off time at 1600 hrs. We didn’t play a single game at that time even in Singapore.”

“We have some injury problems and I will check the status of them tomorrow morning.” Marco added.

New Radiant will play against Singapore’s Balestier Khalsa FC tomorrow at 1600 hours at National Football Stadium.

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boyko on Feb 22
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Yes, football in Maldives has changed a lot, undergone drastic transformations but not in the way anybody wants to see. It is no longer so popular in Maldives; at least not many people come to the stadium to see club football. The standard has gone down as was evident from the recently concluded tournaments. We don’t have good U-23 team, defence and goal keeping has gone down. Players are not committed to their football career; their antics go beyond of the bounds of sports into the troublesome water of politics. The governing body looking after the football is not in the right frame of mind, locked in tussle with the sports ministry. In the event we have lost grounds to neighbouring countries like Nepal, Bangladesh. Everybody can beat us without so much as breaking into sweat. We are no longer a threat in the region. Politics has seeped into every nook and cranny of our football. We are an embodiment of, or shall we say, a living tale of trial and tribulation and mismanagement of football at its core. A football-mad country fast losing its grip in the region!
Imma on Feb 22
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The AFC Cup is upon us once again, and none of the local TV channels care. There will be no home advantage for either New Radiant or Maziya due to the ridiculous kick-off time, as well as a lack of coverage by those tasked with that job. Welcome to Maldives, Balestier Khalsa. I hope you feel at home playing in an empty stadium.
Fan on Feb 23
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I'm trying to visualise a scenario in which New Radiant win this tie, and I'm struggling. They'll need a lot going their way before they've managed to inflict any major damage - and New Radinat will then need to hit on the counter to stand a decent chance. But even then I can imagine as so often is the case we will not get out of group stage, lucky if they get the third place. May be it is too early to talk about that.

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