PSSI Protest Rejected By AFC, Ivar Jenner Confirmed Absent

PSSI's protest against the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) was rejected. This decision also ensures that Ivar Jenner will miss the U-23 Indonesian national team in the 2024 U-23 Asian Cup Group A continued match against Australia U-23.

"It (protes) was rejected by the AFC," said Sumardji, chairman of the PSSI National Team, when contacted Thursday, April 18, 2024.

The national team will undergo the second match of Group A of the 2024 U-23 Asian Cup against Australia on Thursday, April 18, 2024, WIB night. In the match at Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Stadium, Ivar Jenner will certainly not appear.

Ivar was absent because he received a red card in the inaugural match of Indonesia U-23 against Qatar U-23 on Monday, April 15, 2024. The Jong FC Utrecht player got two yellow cards in that match.

Ivar got the first yellow card in the 14th minute after a duel that was actually harmless and was even arguably 50:50. The second yellow card came out in the 46th minute or the first minute of the second half after he was deemed to have violated Saif Eldeen Hassan.

Because the two yellow cards were deemed excessive, PSSI then appealed to the AFC. In the PSSI protest letter, they also mentioned Rizky Ridho's violation which resulted in a penalty for Qatar U-23.

The strong violation that Marselino Ferdinand got when he got a golden opportunity to score was also included in the protest letter. Then, there was also a strong violation of Qatari players against Witan Sulaeman.

However, referee Nasrullo Kabirov's decision to see the two incidents labeled unfair. The Tajikistan justice did not blow the whistle in the Marselino incident, while the hard foul on Witan only resulted in a yellow card.

Apart from that, the U-23 Indonesian national team is already preparing to fight Australia U-23 and forget about the controversial defeat against the host.

Although it is certain that they will appear without Ivar Jenner and Ramadhan Sananta who also received red cards in the group's inaugural match, Garuda Muda added ammunition.

Justin Hubner has received permission from Cerezo Osaka to defend the U-23 Indonesian national team. He is scheduled to arrive in Doha on Thursday, April 18, 2024, morning local time.

In addition, Nathan Tjoe-A-On also joined in the final minutes before the match against Qatar U-23. In fact, he had already played as a substitute in the match.