Indonesia’s hosting of the U-20 FIFA World Cup was supposed to be a boon for tourism as the economy recovers from the pandemic. Instead, the tourism industry is set for $370 million in losses.
If you enjoy watching opposing teams fight each other to a scoreless draw, soccer’s the sport for you. Failing that, Indonesian politics can often give the same effect.
FIFA’s cancellation of Indonesia’s right to host the 2023 U-20 World Cup amid domestic controversy over the participation of Israel’s under-20s team has cost the Indonesian economy millions in lost economic activity, deprived a multitude of Indonesian soccer fans of a chance to see their country host its first FIFA tournament, and wedged the political coalition behind President Joko Widodo’s government – not to mention having done nothing meaningful to advance justice for the Palestinian people.
Loading...
Liam Gammon is a research fellow in the East Asian Bureau of Economic Research and an editor at East Asia Forum (www.eastasiaforum.org) in the Crawford School of Public Policy at the ANU’s College of Asia and the Pacific.
