RI soccer to decide on future
JAKARTA (JP): The All-Indonesia Football Association is to seek a settlement next Monday to its uncertain future in Asian club tournaments following the refusal of the Asian Football Confederation to reschedule the competitions.
Spokesman for the association, Tondo Widodo, said yesterday that the meeting, to be chaired by association chairman Azwar Anas, is likely to decide whether or not it will send teams to the Asia Champions Cup and Cup Winners Cup.
If it does, it will have to find a fair way to select the teams because the Indonesian League, whose winner and runner-up will represent Indonesia in the two competitions, will not be completed until Oct. 6.
Indonesia had earlier asked the confederation to put off the Asian competitions, scheduled for Sept. 7 (first leg) and Sept. 14 (second leg) because of the postponement of the league's final-12.
Originally the final-12 was slated for Aug. 16 to Aug. 25. The new schedule, Sept. 24 to Oct. 6, was announced by PSSI's secretary-general, Nugraha Besoes, Friday last week. The reason, according to Nugraha, was "the current unfavorable political developments" and the National Games (Sept. 9 to Sept. 20) in which all the teams competing in the Indonesian League will be representing their provinces.
The confederation, however, informed Nugraha on Tuesday that it could no longer entertain the request as the two Asian competitions have already been postponed at Indonesia's behest.
The opening ties were originally scheduled to be this month on Aug. 7 and Aug. 14.
The new dates (Sept. 7 and Sept. 14) have been fixed and dispatched to all the confederation's member countries, Nugraha quoted the confederation's secretary-general, Peter Velappan, as telling him.
Indonesia's Champions Cup team is scheduled to take on South Korea's Pohang FC in South Korea on Sept. 7 while its Cup Winners Cup team is scheduled to face a Malaysian team, which is yet to be named, on the same day, in Malaysia.
Last year Indonesian champion Persib Bandung reached the Champions Cup quarterfinals. In the Cup Winners Cup, Indonesia's representative, Petrokimia Putra, crashed out in the second round. (arf)