KONI awaits report from PSSI on collusion scandal

JAKARTA (JP): The National Sports Council has said it would wait for reports from the All-Indonesian Soccer Federation's (PSSI) investigating team on collusion between referees and clubs during last year's Indonesian league.

The council's vice chairman, Arie Sudewo, said yesterday the council would allow time for the investigating team to look into allegations of collusion before any action was taken by the council.

"If the reports are true, it's a very upsetting sports problem in the country. It will become a major barrier to improving sports development in the future. I hope the team and the federation can solve the problem soon," he said.

"If the investigating team finds indications of criminal activity, then the solution would be to go to court. But since the investigating process is not finished, we must see the problem clearly. If a suspect only breaks the organizational rules, then the federation must punish him. But if a suspect does something against the law, then the federation can sue him."

The team's secretary, Edi Elison, said Wednesday it had evidence that an official from PSSI was involved in collusion.

"We learned of this after holding six meetings with referees, former referees, officials and competition inspectors," Edi said.

Edi refused to name the official but did say that the official had not been sanctioned because the team was still investigating the case.

But Edi said that in investigating the case, the team had asked detectives from city police to help them as observers.

"The city police have assigned Major Ibrahim from the corruption section to sit in on meetings of the team," Edi said.

Golden Garuda

Meanwhile, Arie said the Golden Garuda task force team would represent the concept of long-term training on March 5 to reach the sixth best in Asia at the 2006 Asian Games.

"We hope we'll get input from sports organizations officials during the meeting. Their input will be accommodated in the action plans," he said.

"If in the 2002 Asiad in Pusan, South Korea, we can surprisingly reach the top sixth in the quadrennial event then we can change the Golden Garuda's target," he added. (yan/lnt)