FIFA strips Indonesia of football World Cup amid Israel furore

Singapore: Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation, has been stripped of the right to host its first major football event amid opposition to the participation of Israel.

The football-mad nation was scheduled to stage the men’s Under-20 FIFA World Cup from May 20 to June 11 and hoped the 24-team tournament would begin to repair its battered reputation after last year’s stadium tragedy in East Java.

Protesters wave Palestinian flags as they marched in Jakarta last week against Israel’s participation in the Under-20 FIFA World Cup.Credit: AP

Controversy over the qualification of Israel, however, has resulted in the event being removed from the South-East Asia’s largest nation by the game’s world governing body FIFA, which indicated it may also consider sanctions against the Football Association of Indonesia (PSSI).

“FIFA has decided, due to the current circumstances, to remove Indonesia as the host of the FIFA U-20 World Cup 2023,” FIFA said in a statement.

“A new host will be announced as soon as possible, with the dates of the tournament currently remaining unchanged. Potential sanctions against the PSSI may also be decided at a later stage.”

Indonesia was awarded the hosting rights in 2019 well before it was known which national teams would make it through the qualifying stages.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo delivered a televised address on Tuesday night about the tournament.Credit: Indonesian Presidential Palace

But the eventual presence in the draw of Israel – with which it has no formal diplomatic ties – threw a spanner in the works for a government that supports the cause of the Palestinians.

The issue escalated last week when conservative Muslims took to the streets of Jakarta to protest Israel’s involvement.

Bali Governor Wayan Koster then said he would refuse to host the Israeli team on the Hindu-majority island, as the organisers had planned. Koster cited Indonesia’s foreign policy amid the concerns raised about the event’s security.

Israel’s U-20 football team. Credit: Instagram/@isr.fa

The debate was ratcheted up further as Central Java Governor Ganjar Pranowo, the frontrunner for next year’s presidential election, also called for the Israeli team to be excluded from the tournament.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo attempted to salvage the cup, urging that sport and politics should not be mixed. Erick Thohir, one of his ministers and the new head of the PSSI, was dispatched to Doha to meet FIFA president Gianni Infantino.

FIFA, however, decided the domestic furore over Israel had made a tournament in Indonesia untenable. Argentina has been suggested in Indonesian media as a possible alternative host.

“Indonesia is a FIFA member, so for any international soccer matters, we have to abide by the rules,” said Thohir, a businessman who formerly owned Italian football giant Inter Milan.

“I ask all football lovers to keep their heads held high over this tough decision by FIFA.”

One Indonesian player who was due to play in the tournament blamed politicians for the setback.

“We sacrificed our time, thoughts, sweat and even blood. But it suddenly failed due to your political reasons,” striker Rabbani Tasnim Siddiq said on Instagram.

The head of an Indonesian fans’ association, Ignatius Indro, said the loss of hosting rights was a “failure” for the country.

Koster released a statement late Thursday, saying he had stood against Israel playing in Bali in acknowledgement of Indonesia’s constitution, which states that all colonialism must be abolished. He also echoed the argument of his party, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP), whose general secretary accused FIFA of double standards by suspending Russian teams after Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

“I invite the people of Bali to pray together so that FIFA is moved his heart to remain fair by eliminating Team Israel from the World Championships FIFA U-20, the same as [its] attitude when eliminating the Russian team [from the 2022 World Cup in Qatar],” he said.

Koster also said the presence of the Israeli team could have created a security risk for the Balinese people and the Israelis themselves.

“As governor of Bali, I do not tolerate potential disturbances to the security and safety of the people of Bali, which will further impact the hard work of all parties so far, to restore tourism and the economy of Bali, so that they can only recover and get back on their feet after the COVID-19 pandemic,” he said.

Six venues were to hold matches, including Bali, where the draw was also to be staged, but it wasn’t only the subject of where Israel might play that proved problematic.

There was also the possibility that the team might be drawn in the same group as Indonesia, which automatically qualified as hosts, and the two would have to play against each other, further elevating tensions.

Losing the World Cup event is a significant setback. Indonesian football has been plagued by troubles including corruption, match fixing and violence between supporters, all of which has contributed to it being a perennial under-achiever considering its size and zest for the sport.

It was only last October that 135 people died at a top-division league game between Arema FC and Persebaya Surabaya in Malang, most suffocating in a stampede towards the exit gates after police fired tear gas inside the packed stadium.

The PSSI said this week that losing hosting rights would harm Indonesian football teams’ chances of taking part in other FIFA tournaments, while the economic losses would amount to “trillions of rupiah”.

With Reuters

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