Clubs said to be at fault in collusion

JAKARTA (JP): Club officials should also share the blame for any collusion between referees and clubs, chief referee Djafar Umar says.

Djafar, head of the referee commission for the Indonesian Soccer Federation (PSSI), said Sunday that club officials often handed out incentives outside the referees' honorarium.

"With the incentives, the referees forget themselves and misuse their authority. It is impossible for referees to be involved in collusion without the involvement of the club officials. I believe these officials are the cause of the collusion," Djafar said Sunday as quoted by Kompas.

Djafar was referring to a statement made by Andy Darussalam on Saturday that collusion frequently occurred.

Andy is chairman of the soccer club Persija Selatan.

"Andy is right. Referees should not be blamed entirely. We should observe who is actually involved in this," Djafar said in response to reports that he had received a certain amount of money from referees who passed the tests to become FIFA referees.

Djafar believes there is nothing wrong with this as it was a token of gratitude.

"As an official of the federation, I do not receive any honorarium and I certainly need money to pay telephone bills or to go to competitions. PSSI does not pay for those expenditures. I think it's unfair that I should pay all costs while there are PSSI officials who earn millions of rupiah," Djafar said.

In view of this situation, Djafar intends to quit the federation. "I leave the matter to PSSI to choose somebody else to take care of the refereeing." (lnt)