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AKARTA: The government has downplayed the significance of world soccer body FIFA'€™s denial of its request to make several changes to an ad-hoc committee overseeing reform in Indonesian soccer, an official has said.

'€œWe hope FIFA will be fair in regards to the ad-hoc committee. We had a deal,'€ Youth and Sports Ministry spokesman Gatot S. Dewa Broto said on Friday.

The ministry sent a letter to FIFA on Jan. 28 requesting the body to revise the framework for the FIFA-sanctioned ad-hoc committee established to reform the Indonesian Soccer Association (PSSI), which is at present banned by soccer'€™s governing body.

The request was made because the government believed that FIFA had failed to uphold '€œa deal'€, apparently made during the FIFA and AFC visit to Jakarta in November.

Gatot referred to the deal as an agreement between the Indonesian government and FIFA that the body would acknowledge the authority of both a government-formed special team and the FIFA-formed ad-hoc committee to settle the troubled PSSI.

'€œWhat we have now is FIFA prioritizing the ad-hoc committee,'€ said Gatot, adding that the government wanted a committee, comprising government and PSSI members equally.

The government is set to have a meeting with ad-hoc committee chairman Agum Gumelar next Wednesday to discuss the matter.