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Indonesia will not compete in the joint 2018 FIFA World Cup and AFC Asian Cup 2019 qualifiers following a decision taken at the recent extraordinary meeting of the Executive Committee of world football governing body FIFA.

Overshadowed by the re-election of FIFA President Sepp Blatter and corruption arrests, FIFA decided to suspend the Football Association of Indonesia (PSSI) until it removes political interference in its management.

The decision, which resulted from what FIFA describes as an effective “take over” of the activities of PSSI by the Indonesian authorities was backed by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), which as advised the PSSI of the national team’s disqualification from the joint qualifier.

All of Indonesia’s matches from Group F of the joint qualifying competition are thus deleted.

The Indonesian Government has been in dispute PSSI over which teams are eligible to play in the national league, which has been suspended since mid-April.

Football has a passionate following in the country of 250 million people, despite having a poor international record. Indonesia is 155 in the latest FIFA rankings, one place behind Singapore, and more than 20 places below Thailand and Vietnam, the two other teams that were in its group for the 2018 World Cup qualifiers.

Indonesian football has long suffered from poor management with FIFA having also threatened sanctions in 2013, when the PSSI was battling with a breakaway association, the Indonesian Soccer Rescue Committee, for control of the sport. Both sides eventually combined their rival leagues, avoiding punishment.

The latest ban, though, stems from what FIFA sees as Government meddling.

In April, the Indonesian Professional Sports Body, an agency within the Ministry of Youth and Sports, ceased to recognise the PSSI and formed a committee to replace it, saying it intended to improve the running of football. FIFA had given a deadline of the end of May for the Indonesian Government and PSSI to resolve the dispute.

The Indonesian Government said it accepts responsibility for the sanctions but isn’t troubled by them, with the Ministry of Youth and Sports saying that the situation facing both FIFA and Indonesia provided “good momentum” to initiate large-scale reforms.

A recent statement from the Ministry read “over the next few months there will be major changes to restructure Indonesian football.”

In a separate statement, the Minister for Youth and Sport Imam Nahrawi explained that his Ministry would work with related institutions to build a blueprint for revamping Indonesian football by rearranging its management system.

Minister Nahrawi stated “over the next few months there will be major changes to restructure Indonesian football.

Image shows Indonesian football fans.

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