Indonesia To Host The 2024 Asian School Football U-18 Championship

JAKARTA Indonesia was appointed to host the 2024 48th Asian School Football U-18 Championship (ASFC) football event.

The Championship will last for nine days on November 1-9, 2024 in Solo, Central Java. A total of five participating teams will participate, including two from Indonesia.

"With this (event) very good. Maybe this is a sudden event, yes," said Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports (Wamenpora), Taufik Hidayat, at a press conference at the Menpora Office, Jakarta.

At first, Qatar was appointed to host the age group event. However, the state concerned resigned so that Indonesia volunteered to host.

Apart from the two teams from Indonesia, the other three teams that will participate later are China, Thailand, Malaysia. Indonesia has two teams to replace Sri Lanka.

Taufik hopes that in the future the organization of events like this can be held more with a much larger number of participants.

"Pak Menteri (Dito Ariotedjo) dan saya selalu mendukung kegiatan olahraga yang positif, apalagi ada levelnya. Kami selalu melihat jangan sampai jadi ajang ikut saja."

"This must be an achievement event, especially since our President is very concerned about the development of Indonesian sports," said Taufik again.

The two Indonesian teams that will play in this event are Indonesia Merah and Indonesia Putih.

The players who filled the two squads were the result of selection from SKO (Sports Special for Sports), Student Sports Education and Training Center (PPLP), Cibubur Youth Athlete Training Center (CYATC), and several clubs, such as Persis Solo, Borneo FC, Semen Padang, and PSS Sleman.