May 16 – Indonesia’s suspension from international football over government interference in the country’s national federation has ended after almost a year.
The country was re-instated at last week’s FIFA Congress after Jakarta sent a letter notifying that it had lifted sanctions on the national football body, the PSSI.
Indonesia has been unable to play in any competition as a result of a feud between the PSSI the sports ministry over which teams could be admitted to the domestic top flight.
The government had suspended the PSSI after they ignored requests to ban two teams whose owners failed to meet new governance regulations. FIFA, after repeated warnings to resolve the row, issued a ban that ruled Indonesia out of the joint 2018 World Cup and 2019 Asian Cup qualifying campaign.
While Indonesia’s ban was lifted, Kuwait and Benin were not so fortunate as Congress confirmed their existing suspensions, also over government interference.
“I’m very sad to be here and have to propose to you that we suspend two associations,” FIFA president Gianni Infantino told delegates. “On the other hand, we need to protect our associations from government interference, it is one of our major tasks.”
The Kuwait FA (KFA) was suspended in October after FIFA said a draft sports law constituted interference in the nation’s soccer association. Representatives of Kuwaiti clubs who traveled to Mexico City had called for the ban to be lifted, but their plea fell on deaf ears.
The group said it was “shocked and deeply saddened” by the endorsement of the suspension which it said was unjustified and unconstitutional.
“This decision by FIFA was made on the grounds that a draft law – which has never been enacted by the Kuwait National Assembly – would allow the government to interfere with the management of football clubs, despite the fact that a majority of eleven football clubs in Kuwait signed and sent a joint letter to FIFA stating their complete autonomy in their activities and do not suffer from any government interference,” a statement said.
“Before the Congress were set to vote on the suspension, FIFA President Gianni Infantino expressed his desire to quickly resolve the suspension of Kuwait by doing an investigation into the matter. However, the Kuwait Football Clubs delegation still cannot understand how FIFA can suspend a country first and then create an Investigation Committee into the original suspension. Football must be a priority and a country should be given a fair chance to prove its case before a suspension is given, it is not right to assume guilt before doing a fair and proper investigation into the grounds of the original suspension.”
“As a consequence of this devastating decision, all football activities on the international stage, development programs from elite to grassroots as well as all initiatives destined to promote the sport amongst the youth will be completely stopped for at least one year. The members representing the football community of Kuwait now fear the consequences of such a decision, not only for the future of the sport in the country, but also for future generations.”
Abdullah Al-Maayouf, member of the National Assembly of Kuwait, claimed the ban proved FIFA was still more interested in politics than football development .
“Today was a very important day for the new FIFA administration as they had the opportunity to prove that the old political games were behind them,” he said. “Today, the results of the vote prove that nothing has changed. We are very sad to see that the Kuwaiti sport leaders who are very influential in international sport prefer to push their personal political agendas instead of caring for the Kuwaiti’s passion for football and our future generations. Words cannot express my disappointment today.”
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