31 teams to participate in Indonesian league
JAKARTA (JP): Despite its financial woes, the All-Indonesian Soccer Federation (PSSI) confirmed yesterday that 31 clubs would participate in the second leg of the Indonesian league competitions, scheduled to kick off on Sunday.
Dali Taher, the federation's tournament and transfer affairs director, said the teams were permanent participants in the league.
"The monetary crisis has not reduced the number of clubs taking part in the league," Dali said.
He said PSSI also had asked the clubs to finance their daily needs during competitions as they no longer could depend on sponsorships.
"The participating clubs will have to manage their own funds despite the absence of a Rp 100 million (US$10,000) subsidy for each club from the federation," he said.
Federation secretary Nugraha Besoes said the matches would go ahead as scheduled.
The league, to be divided into three geographical divisions, will end its round-robin in July. Only four top teams in each division will qualify for the last 12 rounds in which losing teams will be knocked out of contention.
Nugraha denied rumors that several clubs had pulled out of the competition due to a lack of funds.
"So far, PSSI has yet to receive any letter from clubs regarding pulling out of the competition, so we'll proceed with the matches," he said.
The league matches were originally scheduled to start on Feb. 8, but were delayed due to the General Session of the People's Consultative Assembly following a request from the Armed Forces commander.
Nugraha said the league's winner and runner-up should be decided by July to allow them to represent Indonesia in the Asian Champions Cup and the Winners Cup scheduled to start in August.
He refused to comment on alleged collusive practices involving some referees and soccer clubs, saying that the police were now investigating the case.
Tiger Cup
He said the referees who would oversee the league matches would be chosen by the federation and the fact-finding team that probed the collusion case.
Nugraha said Indonesia could expect a well-organized Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Tiger Cup here in September if riots and cheating did not hinder the upcoming league competitions.
He said eight ASEAN members -- defending champion Thailand, Myanmar, Brunei, Cambodia, Singapore, the Philippines, Laos and host Indonesia -- would participate in the competition.
The National Sports Council has announced that Indonesia's performance in the Tiger Cup would decide whether its soccer team would participate in the Asian Games.
The national team groomed for the Tiger Cup completed the first phase of its training session in Surabaya, East Java, last month. It will resume training next month.
Nugraha said the team was open to modification, but that the federation would leave such decisions solely in the hands of the coaches.
The national team is planning an international friendly match with either Mexico or Latvia.
"We're still negotiating with their team managers. The Mexican team manager is now in Paris for the World Cup," he said.
Nugraha said the national team would also play warm-up matches abroad either in Asia or other continents. (emf)