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Soccer congress to draft plea to FIFA and AFC
As it prepares to host the upcoming soccer congress, the Indonesian Journalists Association (PWI) says it will draft a list of recommendations for the government and the Asian and world soccer authorities, FIFA and the AFC, including on getting Indonesian Soccer Association (PSSI) head Nurdin Halid to quit
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s it prepares to host the upcoming soccer congress, the Indonesian Journalists Association (PWI) says it will draft a list of recommendations for the government and the Asian and world soccer authorities, FIFA and the AFC, including on getting Indonesian Soccer Association (PSSI) head Nurdin Halid to quit.
The national congress — earlier mandated by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono over concerns about the abysmal performance of the national soccer team and supported by the Youth and Sports Ministry as well as National Sports Council (KONI) — is scheduled for March 30 to 31 in Malang, East Java.
“The most concrete result expected from the congress will be a call for the PSSI to hold an extraordinary congress as soon as possible with the main item on the agenda of rooting out Nurdin and his cronies from the association,” organizing committee head Sumohadi Marsis told The Jakarta Post on Monday on the sidelines of an event to introduce the congress.
Sumohadi, who was a journalist at Kompas daily and the Bola sports digest between 1972 and 2004, is also the head of the “sports-for-all” commission at the Indonesian Olympic Committee (KOI).
“We’ll definitely forward our plea to FIFA and the AFC,” he said, adding the PWI had a Plan B in case the PSSI ignored its calls, including boycotting news coverage of local soccer and PSSI events.
Mahfudin Nigara, another former sports journalist who is now a member of the PSSI’s disciplinary commission, pointed out the threat of a boycott by the country’s federation of journalists might be an effective tool, citing a similar move by Mexican journalists in the 1980s.
FIFA banned Mexico for two years, including from participating in the 1990 World Cup, after the Mexican Soccer Federation breached a FIFA rule on age limits in the qualifying round for the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul.
It was the country’s journalists’ federation that filed a report to FIFA over the violation.
Sumohadi added the PWI was currently collecting data to prove Nurdin’s “sins”, particularly from his second stint at the PSSI from 2007.
In the PSSI’s statutes, Article 35 reads, “Members of the Executive Committee … must not [be] found guilty of a criminal offense.”
“Members of the Executive Committee … must not have been previously found guilty of a criminal offense.”
This clearly differs from the original FIFA Standard Statutes, in which Article 32 reads, “Members of the Executive Committee … must not have been previously found guilty of a criminal offense.”
The word “previously” had been omitted from the PSSI statutes.
Nurdin won a second term in office, from 2007 to 2011, amid controversy over the fact that he had served two years in prison on corruption charges — thus clearly violating FIFA statutes.
Besides the chairman’s personal track record, the national soccer squad has continued to perform poorly, including succumbing to a shock loss to host Laos in the group stage of the 2009 Southeast Asian (SEA) Games, and failing to qualify for the 2011 Asian Cup for the first time in 14 years.
PSSI secretary-general Nugraha Besoes could not be reached for comment.
