Visakha FC held an unscheduled press conference on February 3rd to explain the surprise departure of their head coach, Jurģis Kalns, and his staff three months before the end of the season. Reasons cited include personal difficulties of working so far from home and the unexpectedly low level of competition in Cambodia.
The local Cambodian news outlet, Phnom Penh Post, yesterday published an account of an unscheduled press conference called by Visakha FC on the 3rd of February, where the club offered their perspective on the surprise departure of their Latvian head coach and his staff a few days prior.
According the general manager of the club, Ou Panhasoketya, the separation was not initiated by them as the results were satisfactory:
We all know that Visakha is a club that frequently changes coaches. This is a fact, but there are different circumstances this time. The separation with coach Kalns was not something the club wanted, as he was a coach who led the team to excellent results. The decision was entirely his. In fact, the idea of Kalns wanting to leave had already come up once or twice. The club tried to accommodate him to prevent it from affecting other matters. It was not the club’s decision to dismiss him. It was his decision to leave.
Responding to questions about rumours of managerial interference in the coach’s work, Panhaseketya dismissed those out of hand, reiterating that the club allowed Kalns to make his own decisions and to take responsibility for those, be they positive or negative.
The real reason for the departure, according to Panhasoketya, was that Kalns, who won the Latvian title with Valmiera FC in 2022, found himself disappointed with the level of Cambodian Premier League, which the coach felt hindered his ability to work to his full potential. Additionally, organizational issues such as pre-match arrangements, post-match routines and other similar aspects played a role his decision to leave, she added.
Personal challenges of working so far away from home and being separated from their families had ultimately proven too much for Kalns and his staff, who wanted to return to their home country to be closer to their families. Located almost 8,300km apart, flights between Riga and Phnom Penh are both lengthy (averaging 22 hours) and expensive.
It should be noted that much of what the club said correlates with previous interviews given by Kalns on his experience of working in Cambodia. In a conversation with Edmunds Novickis back in June 2024, he did express disappointment with the state of football infrastructure in Cambodia, admitting that he considered Visakha merely as a stepping stone to a larger club in some stronger league in Asia, should he be able to win the title in his first season in Cambodia.
In later interviews, Kalns also complained about the tactically unsophisticated level of football played in Cambodian Premier League, as well as about a degree of internal strife and rampant power politics that affected operational decision-making within the club itself.
Having left Visakha, Jurģis Kalns will be returning to take charge of FK Auda, with whom he debuted as head coach back in 2014.
Source: https://www.phnompenhpost.com/sport/visakha-fc-reveal-truth-behind-coach-s-sudden-departure
