Junior players registered to avoid age cheating
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)