By David Gold
April 22 – FIFA has ruled that Nurdin Halid, the current head of the Indonesian Football Association (PSSI), is ineligible for the Executive Committee elections next month.
Arifin Panigoro, a local oil tycoon who began a breakaway Indonesian Premier League (LPI) last month, is also barred from standing.
FIFA had appointed a Normalisation Committee to organise Presidential elections without Halid, who was accused by opponents of denying them votes in a planned ballot earlier this year.
In a statement, the world governing body said: “FIFA confirm the non-eligibility to the Executive Committee of PSSI of the four candidates (Mr Nurdin Halid, Mr Nirwan Bakrie, [Army Chief of Staff] Mr George Toisutta and Mr Arifin Panigoro) who were rejected by the PSSI Appeal Committee on 28 February 2011.”
Nurdin was jailed in 2007 on charges relating to improper use of funds, but continued to run the organisation from his prison cell.
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