The Jakarta Globe: PSSI Election Reset Again

The Indonesian Football Association’s election has been rescheduled to July 9, the fifth time the vote has been pushed back this year.

Agum Gumelar, chairman of the normalization committee tasked to organize the election, said the poll date has been reset after consulting with the Asian Football Confederation.

“Based on the PSSI’s statutes, members of the FA must receive an official invitation for the election at least four weeks before the date of the election,” Agum said on Friday.

“So we will break the rules if we hold the vote on June 30 because we have not sent out any inviations yet.”

The venue of the PSSI election will remain in Solo, Central Java.

FIFA, world football’s governing body, had instructed the PSSI to conduct its election before June 30 or risk being suspended from international competitions.

To comply with the ruling, the normalization committee scheduled the election for June 30.

“We’ve also consulted the matter to FIFA. They said the election should not be held later than July 10,” said Agum, whose committee only started distributing invitations for the general assembly to its 101 members on Friday.

FIFA has given the PSSI until July 10 to declare its new chairman, vice chairman and executive committee members. If no such results are met, Indonesia will automatically be suspended by FIFA.

The Jakarta Globe confirmed the details of FIFA’s ruling in an e-mail sent by the world body’s media department.

Agum said he was aware of the grave consequences should the PSSI election not push through again. “We don’t want to break the rules as it will give us another problem. The election will be held at Sunan Hotel in Solo, on July 9,” he said.

Joko Driyono, acting secretary general of the PSSI, revealed that the election would cost Rp 3 billion ($352,000), which is more than the one held in Jakarta on May 20.

Last month’s election, which was held at Sultan Hotel, cost Rp 2 billion. It was called off because some PSSI members insisted on including candidates that were banned by FIFA.

The normalization committee chose Solo as the venue of the election because of the city’s football history. The PSSI was established in Solo in 1930.

“The cost is higher because we have to pay for the members’ transportation and accomodation. All the expenses will be covered by the PSSI,” Joko told state-run news agency Antara.

Agus Yasmin, a member of the so-called pro-reform faction that disrupted the May 20 election, said his group respected the normalization committee’s decision to comply with the rules, saying on Friday that “they welcomed the decision to reset the date of the election. It shows that there’s no threat of a sanction if we miss the June 30 deadline.”