AFC urges Agum to take helm at PSSI

Eva C. Komandjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Asian Football Confederation (AFC)'s secretary-general Peter Velappan advised the Indonesian Soccer Association (PSSI) to appoint KONI chairman Agum Gumelar to temporarily replace Nurdin Halid as PSSI chairman.

KONI secretary-general Djohar Arifin said on Tuesday that during a meeting last week Velappan had asked Agum to take the chair left vacant by Nurdin since last June. However a PSSI official said its rules required an election for a new chairman.

Nurdin was named as a suspect in a sugar smuggling case in July and was later admitted to the hospital, allegedly on account of ill health. Since then, the PSSI has been without a working chairman.

"Peter Velappan has asked Agum to act as PSSI chairman temporarily while Nurdin is unable to perform his duties as chairman," Djohar said.

Djohar added that Velappan had stressed the urgency of someone immediately taking charge of the association due to upcoming major events in the PSSI's calendar, such as hosting the Asia Cup in Jakarta in 2007.

"Velappan was worried that the absence of a chairman might disrupt the PSSI's activities, including sending teams to competitions abroad and hosting the Asia Cup," Djohar said.

Agum was asked to take over Nurdin's post as he had experience serving as PSSI chairman. He was chairman from 1998 to 2003. Currently, he is the PSSI's honorary chairman.

"I do want to help the PSSI and I am ready to do so. But only if PSSI officials agree and if they all ask me to take over the job," Agum said.

However, PSSI secretary-general Nugraha Besoes said that replacing Nurdin with Agum would violate the organization's rules.

"The honorary chairman cannot perform the work of the chairman as both have very different responsibilities," Nugraha told The Jakarta Post.

"Personally, I want Agum to help us out but we can't just go ahead without having regard to the rules. A new chairman must be elected by an extraordinary general meeting -- an acting chairman is not provided for or recognized by the rules," Nugraha said.

He added that the PSSI had no plans to convene an extraordinary general meeting in the near future as Nurdin was officially still the PSSI chairman.

Nugraha said that the AFC should not worry about the PSSI's performance as thus far the PSSI had never failed to meet its obligations to send teams to scheduled overseas competitions, such as the Asia Junior Cup in Kuala Lumpur this month.