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QNB League to resume on April 25
Sealed: A man looks at the locked main office of the Soccer Association of Indonesia (PSSI) at the Gelora Bung Karno sports complex in Jakarta on Sunday
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span class="caption">Sealed: A man looks at the locked main office of the Soccer Association of Indonesia (PSSI) at the Gelora Bung Karno sports complex in Jakarta on Sunday. Soccer lovers sealed the PSSI office and attached 'Sealed' stickers to the office gates on Sunday, after the Youth and Sports Ministry dissolved the association on Saturday for disregarding its instructions. JP/DON
The Soccer Association of Indonesia (PSSI) will restart the nation's premier soccer league, the QNB League, on April 25, despite its recent suspension by the Youth and Sports Ministry.
'The new executive committee members agreed in a meeting earlier today that we will resume the league on April 25,' said La Nyalla Mattaliti, the new PSSI chief, who was elected in a congress last Saturday.
'We will report [the decision to resume the league] to the [youth and] sports minister on Monday,' he said.
He added that informing the ministry of the move did not mean the association needed the ministry's approval.
'The PSSI is not an organization under the ministry. The PSSI is a public organization. Does the [youth and sports] ministry have the right to freeze the PSSI? That question needs an answer,' La Nyalla added.
QNB league organizer PT Liga Indonesia said it had yet to receive official notice that the season would resume later this month.
'It all depends on the PSSI. We are awaiting their decision,' Liga Indonesia secretary Tigorshalom Boboy said.
The decision to suspend all PSSI's activities comes amid a period of tension between the ministry and the PSSI after the Indonesian Professional Sports Body (BOPI), an arm of the ministry overseeing professional sports, issued a recommendation to disqualify soccer clubs Persebaya Surabaya and Arema Indonesia from the QNB, which was kicked off on April 4.
The two clubs were deemed ineligible by BOPI due to ownership disputes.
The PSSI disregarded the recommendation, prompting the ministry to send three warning letters, which made the soccer body halt the QNB league on April 12, after just two day matches were played.
Tensions boiled over Saturday when the ministry announced it would no longer recognize the PSSI and that a transition team would be set up to take over its duties.
'The transition team will be established within the week so that the league can go on,' said the Youth and Sports Ministry's assistant for development and partnership, Gatot S. Dewa Broto.
He added that he would update world soccer body FIFA on developments in the ongoing dispute as they unfolded.
FIFA had previously sent a letter to the ministry demanding it allow the PSSI to manage its affairs independently, threatening to ban Indonesia from international competition if the ministry refused.
A FIFA ban could prevent Indonesia from participating in the joint qualifying tournament for the 2018 World Cup and the 2019 Asian Cup later this year.
