FIFA give Indonesia month to hold elections
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.
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