March 25, 2011
A protester at an anti-PSSI demonstration in Jakarta last month. (Getty)FIFA’s executive committee ordered the congress earlier this month, amidst fears that disgraced PSSI president, Nurdin Halid, was trying to manipulate the electoral process.
Halid has twice run the PSSI from a jail cell while serving sentences for corruption, and FIFA’s ethical code should preclude him from having a role in football.
FIFA has passed up on the opportunity to ban Halid, saying it is the role of his country’s FA to decide on his fitness to hold office, and tomorrow’s congress may make or break his future in football.
Former Indonesian international Bob Hippy, a leading member of Indonesia’s football reform movement which is opposed to Halid, tells INSIDER that he fears the PSSI will try and “violate” the electoral process and “intimidate delegates” in an attempt to bring the collapse of the congress.
Other sources within the reform movement have expressed concern that there are attempts to “poison” the congress and get a vote on Nurdin’s future postponed until after the FIFA presidential election, when his ally Mohamed Bin Hammam stands a chance of taking over from Sepp Blatter. They suggest that Halid may be allowed to continue under a Bin Hammam-led FIFA.
“We are afraid that they are going to do something that violates the whole thing,” Hippy told INSIDER.
“They will try and intimidate delegates.
“Inside the room they will try and change again who can vote and who cannot. This is what they do. We have released the 100 voters who have been invited, but now they are changing it again.
“This is their tactic – to obscure the electoral process.
“There is a danger that the whole electoral process could collapse. This is what I’m afraid of because they will not give up and they [FIFA] will cancel the whole thing.”
Reform movement sources have pointed to the decision to host the congress in Riau on the island of Sumatra – rather than more accessible locations, such as Jakarta or Bali – as evidence of trying to dissuade delegates from attending. Around 80 of the 100 voters signed a no-confidence motion in the PSSI leadership earlier this month.
According to unconfirmed reports, Riau’s police force requested Thursday that the congress be moved to another hotel, as they feared the current venue was inadequately secure lest there be mass anti-Nurdin supporter protests of the kind witnessed in Jakarta earlier this month.
FIFA’s director of member associations, Thierry Regeness, is not expected to attend, but football’s world governing body is due to be represented by New Zealand FA chairman Frank Van Hattum.
The former international goalkeeper is also a member of FIFA’s Association’s committee, which earlier this month recommended Nurdin be barred from standing – a recommendation that was subsequently rebuffed by the FIFA Exco.
Should everything proceed according to plan and an electoral process be agreed upon, delegates will meet on April 29 to vote for a new PSSI president.
“The reform movement will hold strong,” Hippy said.
“We have 80 votes out of 100 and we are still united on that side.
“I’m still confident because we have the majority, but I’m afraid that they’re going to manipulate all the rules and regulations of the congress.”
From INSIDER’s James Corbett
original from: www.worldfootballinsider.com
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