December 4 – Indonesia wants to jointly stage the 2025 Under-20 World Cup with Singapore, despite being stripped of hosting rights to this year’s tournament.
In March, Muslim-majority Indonesia lost the rights to host the competition just seven weeks before it was due to start due to opposition over the participation of Israel. A number of Indonesian regional governments said they would not allow the qualified Israeli team to enter their region.
Argentina stepped in at the last minute as replacement hosts of the May 20-June 11 tournament, where Israel finished a surprise third.
The loss of hosting rights was a big setback in Indonesia, where football has a huge following despite the lack of international success since qualifying for the 1938 World Cup as the Dutch East Indies.
FIFA’s decision also came just six months after 135 spectators were killed in a stampede at a domestic match, many crushed as they fled tear gas fired into the crowd by police, in what was one of the sport’s biggest stadium disasters.
Indonesia has instead just staged the under-17 World Cup, which concluded at the weekend (no Israeli team had qualified), and the country’s president Joko Widodo said it now wanted to have another crack at the under-20s, this time with Singapore.
“The declaration of interest has been signed by PSSI and (the) Football Association of Singapore (FAS),” he told reporters in Jakarta.
“I believe Singapore and Indonesia can be good hosts.”
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