New dates for soccer league due to politics

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Indonesian soccer league will be postponed to for about two months after heeding advice from the National Police to halt the league during the national election campaign period, the Soccer Association of Indonesia (PSSI) announced on Tuesday.

PSSI chairman Nurdin Halid announced during a press conference that National Police chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar had advised them against holding matches during the campaign season.

Consequently, there will be no matches between March 11 and April 7. The campaign time is from March 11 to April 1 and the legislative election is on April 5.

The second break will be between June 1 and July 7, which will coincide with the first round presidential campaign.

PSSI secretary-general Nugraha Besoes told The Jakarta Post that it was an external factor that they had to accept.

With no games for a total of about two months, the inter-club competitions are expected to finish around September.

However, according to Nurdin, the National Police have given a green light for international events to proceed as long as they are staged outside Jakarta.

Indonesia will host Sri Lanka in the 2006 World Cup qualification round on June 9, while in the Asian Champions League, PSM Makassar will entertain Dalian Shide FC of China on April 7.

Nugraha said that PSSI will invite all clubs for a meeting to discuss the details of the rescheduling on Feb. 5.

Clubs have been complaining of the tight schedule, which has affected the teams' performance.

"We will use the opportunity to evaluate the league, and we might arrange a looser schedule that will be fair to everyone," he said.