Agenda of Meeting with FIFA President over PSSI Crisis

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com - Indonesian Ambassador to Switzerland Djoko Susilo is to meet FIFA President Joseph Sepp Blatter on Tuesday to enlighten the latter about the crisis happening in the All-Indonesia Football Association (PSSI).

"The time and agenda of the meeting has been set. I will brief the FIFA chief on what the government knows about the trouble in PSSI, including happenings ahead of the PDDI congress," Djoko Susilo said when contacted by telephone from Jakarta on Saturday.

He said FIFA had so far been receiving one-sided information, namely from PSSI itself. "Now I have been assigned by the government to explain the crisis in PSSI based on data it possesses," he said.

Apart from clarifying current developments in Indonesian football, Djoko would also ask Blatter about the PSSI rules of association endorsed by FIFA whereby Nurdin Halid, the present PSSI chairman was able to get reelected at the PSSI congress in 2007.

"FIFA should also be informed of what the government knows. So far, it has been fed with information from PSSI only. In short, I will meet Sepp Blatter so that he does not only have a one-sided understanding of the PSSI crisis," Djoko said.

Djoko who is a former member of the House of Representatives (DPR)’s Commission I, said the trouble happening in PSSI was a crucial matter because it involved the public and had become a national issue.

"Just wait, I will duly report on the outcome of my meeting with the FIFA chief. I will enlighten him on developments in Indonesian football, including the government’s role in supervising sports," he said.

Djoko said if the explanations he would give to Blatter did not satisfy FIFA, he might ask Youth and Sports Minister Andi Mallarangeng, who was the one who had asked him to meet the FIFA leadership, to come to the FIFA headquarters in Zurich himself.

The PSSI crisis evolves around the present chairman Nurdin Halid’s candidacy for another term in office ahead of a PSSI congress although under his leadership Indonesian football remained void of any significant achievement.

A committee responsible for verification of the eligibility of candidates for the PSSI chair recently named Nurdin and one of his long-time associates as the only candidates fit to stand in the election. This triggered wide-spread protests across the country and a commission handling appeals on the verification committee’s decision eventually revoked Nurdin’s nomination.

As a result of the problem, the PSSI executive board decided to postpone the timeline of the association’s congress while FIFA had ruled that the congress must take place before April 30.