Indonesia bows to FIFA pressure
Reuters - Friday 13 May 2011, 14:02
JAKARTA - Indonesia bowed to FIFA pressure
on Friday and banned the two candidates football's world governing
body did not want in the race to become the chairman of the
country's football association (PSSI).
Local oil tycoon Arifin Panigoro, who launched a breakaway
Indonesian Premier League (LPI), and army general George
Toisutta are not shortlisted for the PSSI presidency in the May
20 elections in the capital Jakarta, according to a caretaker
committee running the football association.
The PSSI electoral appeal committee previously argued both
candidates should be allowed to run for the presidency as they
had no criminal records, local Indonesian media reported.
"We, the normalisation committee, will not respond to the
appeal results made by those who have no rights," committee
chairman Agum Gumelar said in a televised news conference.
The committee shortlisted 20 names to compete for the PSSI
chairman's job.
FIFA last month intervened directly and set up the
"normalisation" committee following chaotic scenes in the PSSI
elections after a break-in by opponents of former chairman
Nurdin Halid, who was jailed in 2007 for misusing funds but
continued to run the PSSI from his cell.