PSSI banned from staging soccer matches at Senayan

PSSI banned from staging soccer matches at Senayan

JAKARTA (JP): The All Indonesian Football Federation has been
banned from staging international events in Senayan Main Stadium
for six months, the Asian Soccer Confederation's (AFC) executive
committee announced yesterday.

The ban was imposed after about 1,000 of the 120,000 people
watching the 19th SEA Games men's soccer final between Indonesia
and Thailand on Oct. 18 were involved in a riot.

The AFC also fined the association US$8,000 and decided to
classify the stadium as "high risk".

The AFC's secretary-general, Peter Velappan, said the stadium
would have to meet AFC safety requirements for the competing
teams, officials and spectators.

"Only with such a guarantee can we decide to use the stadium
as a venue in the future," he said, as quoted by Antara.

"The AFC will also assist the association to implement a
program through the media to educate Indonesian soccer fans on
proper behavior and suggest proper training for the security
forces in handling the public."

Velappan also warned that the association would be suspended
indefinitely from organizing tournaments if the organizers failed
to pay allowances totaling $69,000 to the soccer tournament's
officials within four weeks.

The ban was suggested by the confederation's discipline and
fairplay commission which received the chaos report.

The Gelora Senayan Management Board director Yasidi Hambali
told reporters yesterday that the chaos caused Rp 300 million
(US$83,300) worth of damage.

"The figure is only our estimate and is not final. There is
some light damage not included in our calculation," he said.

Yasidi said renovating Senayan Main Stadium would cost more
than Rp 200 million. The rest was the cost of repairing and
replacing other facilities, including broken glass, street lamps
and street vases.

"The stadium losses includes broken fences and the burnt
wooden benches," he said.

Yasidi said the Games consortium had promised to hand over Rp
1 billion "soon". The money is part of the Rp 3.5 billion rent
still outstanding.

"We understand that the Games organizers and consortium have
financial problems. We believe they will pay the rest but we
don't have a dateline," he said.

The Senayan management received nearly Rp 3 billion assistance
from the consortium in the form of the hockey field and the
Panasonic sound system in the main stadium.

Separately yesterday, the National Sports Council's vice
chairman, Arie Sudewo, said the organizers would write a book of
guidelines on how to stage a multisports event, the evaluation of
the 19th SEA Games and the 13th Asian Games preparation.

Arie said the book would also contain an evaluation of the
Indonesian contingent's success in the Games.

"The evaluation will be used to improve the development of the
Golden Garuda Project, through which Indonesia aims to reach
world standard in many sports."

"There are 19 sports in the project, but we have predicted
that we will only compete in 16 sports in the Asian Games."

The council only plans to send potential gold medalists to the
Bangkok Games, in badminton, weightlifting, fencing, track and
field, cycling, karate (only kata division), surfing, archery,
gymnastic (only male gymnast Jonathan Mangiring Sianturi),
swimming, taekwondo, tennis (only if world ranked 21st Yayuk
Basuki plays), beach volleyball, boxing, judo and rowing.

Arie said the council did not yet know if the money to finance
the Indonesian team for the Asian Games would come from the
government or the private sector.

He also said that the Games consortium's financial audit
should be finished by the middle of November, before the council
reports it to the House of Representatives.

"It's our responsibility to the public who have paid for the
sticker sales through their electricity, water and telephone
bills," he said. (yan)