Junior players registered to avoid age cheating

JAKARTA (JP): The Soccer Association of Indonesia (PSSI) junior development director, Ronny Pattinasarani, said on Tuesday the federation had started registering all junior players to avoid future attempts to falsify ages.

The registration started in time for the Under-12 Campina Kids League (Ligana) competition in April.

Twenty-four out of 192 soccer schools qualified for the second round which will take place in Jakarta, Bandung, Semarang and Surabaya from May 27 to June 17 for eight quarterfinals tickets.

"Age falsification has become a trend in junior events and we are deeply concern about it. We're going to record all juniors attending the competition to avoid such an incident."

Ronny said PSSI had taken stern measure against age cheating. Citing an example, he pointed out that the Persigawa team was disqualified from the U-12 competition for falsifying the ages of two of its players.

Persigawa had initially qualified for the second round as it topped the pool B standing in Group A of the first round. Due to its disqualification, Persigawa was replaced by pool B runner-up Bintang Kranggan.

Separately, Persigawa's chairman Agus Shamad Saleh refuted the charge and rejected the decision, saying it was illegal.

The disqualification notice was issued by the organizers in Jakarta but was signed by an official of the Indonesian Children's Sports Development (Porgaki) Foundation.

Ronny, a former national player, assured that age falsification cases would not deter the development of junior soccer.

He said PSSI would try to find sponsors for the U-13 and U-14 competitions to maintain sustainable development of the sport for juniors.

"We hope in 2002 the step-by-step soccer development will prove its effectiveness. But we also call on our regional chapters to stage competitions in their own areas and not only wait for national competitions," he said.

The best matches at the Ligana Campina are being aired by SCTV private station every Sunday at 3:30 p.m. Jakarta time. The program includes phone quizzes by sponsor Campina ice cream producer. (ivy)