By David Gold
March 29 – Indonesia’s Football Assocation (PSSI) has provoked a row after a FIFA observer was reportedly prevented from attending its Congress as controversy grows over the legitimacy of its chairman.
The PSSI was set to hold its first leadership election in four years when opponents of the current chairman Nurdin Halid (pictured) stormed in and said that they had been stripped of voting rights.
As a result, the election was cancelled and the Indonesian Government said it cut funding off to the PSSI, as well as refusing to recognise Halid as its chairman.
FIFA denied that it had anything to do with the cancellation of the congress.
“FIFA’s observer was prevented in being able to observe the PSSI General Assembly in Pekanbaru on 26 March by the PSSI leadership,” the syaid.
“The claim from the PSSI secretary general that it was FIFA who decided to cancel the PSSI Congress for alleged security reasons is completely false.
“On the contrary, the FIFA observer repeatedly requested to go to the Congress venue and was prevented in doing so by the PSSI leadership.
“Once FIFA receives the official report from its observer, FIFA will submit the situation to the relevant body for a decision.”
FIFA actively fights against political interference in the sport, last year briefly banning Nigeria following the threat of court action by the Government against members of its Football Federation.
Indonesian Sports Minister Andi Mallarangeng hit out at the PSSI on TV, saying: “To avoid a repeat of the failure of a PSSI Congress due to the incompetency of the PSSI leadership…the government stated that it will not acknowledge the leadership of PSSI.”
Mallarangeng added that FIFA will decide on whether the committee formed by the congress would be recognised, and if this does not happen it will schedule a new congress in time for the FIFA deadline of April 30 to find a new leader.
Halid, who was jailed in 2007 for an abuse of PSSI funds, hit back by claiming the Sports Minister should be sacked for defending allegedly illegal members of the PSSI.
The Indonesian public, which takes its football seriously, has called on Halid to step down increasingly vociferously recently as the national team’s fortunes stagnate.
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