FIFA give Indonesia month to hold elections
Reuters - Tuesday 31 May 2011, 04:38
JAKARTA - Indonesia's strife-torn
national football body (PSSI) has been given a one-month reprieve
by FIFA to hold leadership elections before it faces possible
sanctions.
The PSSI had been told it must hold elections by the end of
May or face suspension from the game's governing body, which
would have jeopardised their participation in the second round
of 2014 World Cup Asian qualifying at the end of July.
"They told us that the PSSI must hold an election before
June 30," the FIFA-appointed normalisation committee head
Gumelar Agum told the Jakarta Globe from Zurich.
"I hope that this time we will have an election and finally
put an end to the leadership crisis in the PSSI."
Agum was also told the PSSI must bring the breakaway
Indonesian Premier League under their control and were reminded
that several candidates who had expressed interest in the PSSI
elections were still banned from taking part, the newspaper
said.
FIFA was forced to set up the normalisation committee
earlier this year after opponents of former chairman Nurdin
Halid, who was jailed in 2007 for misusing funds but continued
to run the PSSI from his cell, forced their way into PSSI
elections
The world governing body, however, is embroiled in its own
corruption scandal with two senior members of its executive
committee - CONCACAF head Jack Warner and Asian Football
Confederation head Mohamed Bin Hammam - suspended following
allegations of bribery.