Serbian coach for U-21 side

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine Football Federation is laying the groundwork for its campaign in the 2013 Southeast Asian Games by hiring Serbian coach Zoran Dordevic to help handle teams outside the senior squad.

Dordevic’s first assignment will be the Under-21 side that will see action in the Hassanal Bolkiah Trophy next month in Brunei.

Dan Palami, the Azkals manager who is also in charge of the Under-21 team, said the team to the Brunei tournament will form the nucleus of the SEA Games squad in 2013 in Myanmar.

“We want to make sure that we will be well prepared for the SEA Games next year as promised after our disappointing result in Indonesia,” said Palami, who also managed the SEA Games Under-23 team that won only one game under current coach Michael Weiss.

The 60-year-old Dordevic is an accomplished coach.

One of his recent accomplishments was steering Bangladesh to the South Asian Games title in 2010 without conceding a single goal against the likes of fancied squads Maldives and India.

Meanwhile, Philippine Olympic Committee chair Monico Puentevella is pushing for the staging of a Visayas-Mindanao Football Open late this year.

Puentevella, who was appointed director in the Marketing and Television Committee of the International Football Federation (Fifa), believes there is a vacuum in competitions for the Visayas and Mindanao, which he said, have consistently produced national team players.