Skip to main content

FIFA intervenes in Indonesia FA crisis

FIFA said in a statement that the so-called normalisation committee would organise elections for the Football Association of Indonesia (PSSI) leadership by the end of next month, stop a rebel league and run the association on a day-to-day basis.

The decision followed chaotic scenes 10 days ago when an assembly to organise the first PSSI elections in four years was called off after opponents of chairman Nurdin Halid stormed in claiming they had been stripped of voting rights.

"The FIFA emergency committee came...to the conclusion that the PSSI leadership had lost all credibility within Indonesia and was not in a position any more to lead the process to solve the current crisis," said FIFA in a statement.

FIFA added that the PSSI's lack of control was "proven by the failure to gain control of the breakaway league, set up without the involvement of PSSI, or by the fact it could not organise a congress whose sole goals were to adopt an electoral code and elect an electoral commission.

"The mission of the normalisation committee is to organise elections based on the FIFA electoral code and PSSI statutes before May 21, to bring the run-away league under PSSI control... (and) to run the day-to-day activities of PSSI in a spirit of reconciliation for the good of the Indonesian football," it said.

Despite a huge football-mad population, Indonesia's only World Cup appearance was in pre-independence days in 1938 as the Dutch East Indies and is not recognised by the PSSI.