Received The Green Light From Menpora, Director Of IBL: We Want To Be Aspirations

JAKARTA - The Minister of Youth and Sports (Menpora) Zainudin Amali has given the green light to the Indonesian Basketball League (IBL) operator to continue the competition. However, the Menpora emphasized not to let IBL become a new cluster for the spread of COVID-19.

The IBL Director, Junas Miradiarsyah, is ready to answer that challenge. He stated that all implementation plans were confirmed by the health protocol that had been prepared together. IBL has coordinated with the National Disaster Management Agency, the Ministry of Health and related health offices. He hopes, with this information hopefully it can provide an overview of the development of IBL.

"We want the spirit of this sport to become an aspiration for the community, not the other way around, and the key is togetherness that everything can be implemented with discipline," said Junas.

He added, IBL will hold a simulation match this August. There are several stages to be carried out, the first is pre-simulation. In this pre-simulation, the IBL operator coordinates with several parties such as hotels, venue managers, and transportation.

"We ensure everything is well organized, after cooperation with the government in the near future we will carry out a simulation at the end of August," he said.

The IBL competition will continue the rest of the season at Mahaka Square Arena Kelapa Gading, North Jakarta, 13-27 October. In accordance with the government's recommendation, the match will be held without spectators. This is to prevent the spread of COVID-19 from becoming more massive.

As is known, the Menpora said there would be a signing of an MoU between IBL, the Covid-19 Handling Task Force and the Ministry of Youth and Sports regarding the continuation of the national basketball competition. He hopes that this signing will be done before the MoU before the match simulation is held. Menpora also asked for a party from the Health Office to supervise it.

"Later there will also be from the Ministry of Youth and Sports to monitor it and will report whether the competition runs with health discipline or not," said the Menpora.