Exclusive: FIFA Urged to Act Amid Allegations of Indonesian FA Corruption...

FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke speaks with Nurdin Halid (second from right) on the sidelines of the 2010 FIFA Congress in South Africa (WFI)

February 24, 2011 

(WFI) Indonesian FA members have called on FIFA to remove their own president ahead of a series of key meetings in Zurich next week, as more details about the country’s farcical World Cup bid emerge.



In a letter addressed to FIFA vice president Geoff Thompson, who chairs the FIFA Associations Committee, leading Indonesian FA (PSSI) officials have delivered a damning indictment of the way in which the organisation is run. They are urging FIFA “for support in light of the scandalous recent events".

The letter, seen by INSIDER, calls on FIFA to declare null and void the PSSI’s current presidential election process, to launch an investigation into the Indonesian football situation, and to suspend all sanctions the PSSI leadership have recently made against players, clubs and officials - claiming they are “politically motivated and decided without due process.”

FIFA’s Associations Committee meet in Zurich on Tuesday, ahead of an Executive Committee meeting on Wednesday and Thursday.

The call for action comes amid growing concern that PSSI president Nurdin Halid, a convicted fraudster who previously ran the PSSI from behind prison bars, is attempting to fix next month’s presidential election. Halid is standing for a third term as PSSI president.

The letter, signed by Sukawi Sutarip, chairman of the Central Java Province of the PSSI, and copied in to all members of the Associations Committee and FIFA Ex-Co, lays out a list of alleged violations of FIFA and PSSI rules by Halid, PSSI vice president Nirwan Bakrie and general secretary Nugraha Besoes.

It claims Halid’s position is incompatible with the FIFA Ethics Code, which precludes those with criminal convictions from holding positions. Halid has served two jail terms while in charge of the PSSI, latterly for illegal trading of foodstuffs Vietnam had donated to Indonesia for humanitarian reasons following the Asian Tsunami.

The letter alleges a longstanding business relationship with Tommy Suharto, son of Indonesia’s former dictator, who is currently serving a 15-year jail term for ordering the murder of a judge.

Alleged violations of FIFA principles
Sutarip goes on to detail the PSSI’s systematic violation of FIFA’s principles of political neutrality.

He writes that the PSSI is uniformly infiltrated by the Golkar Political Party and that senior officials regularly abuse their positions of power to use football for political reasons.

Of the failed 2022 World Cup bid, he alleges it was only ever a “platform” to promote the Golkar Party candidate Yusuf Kalla in Indonesia’s presidential elections in July 2009.

“The bid was immediately abandoned after this failed PR coup,” he added.

FIFA kicked out the lame-duck bid in March last year after the Indonesian government failed to provide necessary guarantees.

PSSI members say that they have appealed to FIFA to intervene as a last resort.

Because PSSI statutes – which are meant to be based on a template designed by FIFA – have been amended by its leadership to enshrine Halid’s position in the organization over the past two years, they cannot be utilized to get rid of Halid. They do not wish to use ordinary courts in case they violate FIFA statutes, and fall outside the jurisdiction of the Court of Arbitration for Sport because it is a domestic dispute.

Geoff Thompson’s committee is believed by many in Indonesian football to represent their best chance of ousting the disgraced Halid.

Following Halid’s re-election as PSSI president in April 2007, FIFA’s Associations Committee ruled the elections ineligible because its statutes had been manipulated and “a person who has been convicted of a crime and is currently in prison would not be eligible to stand for election".

It called for reorganisation of the elections and recommended action to the FIFA Executive Committee, but nothing ever happened.

One source close to the FIFA Executive Committee claimed to INSIDER that an influential Ex-Co member blocked any action against Halid – who was an ally of his – to protect his own interests in the region.

INSIDER asked Geoff Thompson if the case of Indonesia would be on the Associations Committee agenda next week. He declined to comment.

from:  www.worldfootballinsider.com