Soccer-Cambodia lose coach O'Donell after cash runs dry

By Ek Madra

PHNOM PENH, Dec 19 (Reuters) - Cambodia's cash-strapped national team has parted company with Australian coach Scott O'Donell because it could not find the money to pay him, the country's soccer president said on Wednesday.

O'Donell opted not to renew the contract, due to expire at the end of this year, after a sponsor paying his salary pulled the plug on the deal.

"Scott's payment is too high, we cannot afford it," Sao Sokha, president of Cambodia's soccer federation, told Reuters.

"Our country's economy is recovering from the past difficult times," he said, referring to Cambodia's three-decades of civil war, which included the brutal Khmer Rouge "killing fields" genocide between 1975 and 1979.

"For sure, Scott is a good coach but training players to achieve the level of our satisfaction we cannot do overnight," he said.

O'Donell, a well-known television soccer pundit in Asia, said he wished he could have done more with the team.

"At the end of the day it came down to money, which Cambodia doesn't really have," he said.

"There's no hard feelings, the team just didn't get the support it needed.