JAKARTA - The Minister of Youth and Sports (Menpora), Erick Thohir, guarantees the citizenship status of athletes of descent or diaspora after the recent case of passport (passportgate) in the Eredivisie competition (Dutch League).
Erick said that the Government ensured that all the naturalization process of athletes remained under the umbrella of the law of the law applicable in Indonesia.
"The regulation is clear that our citizenship adheres to the one-passport system. That is what we still adhere to," said Erick in a press conference in Jakarta.
Erick emphasized that the presence of diaspora athletes is not new and has proven to make a real contribution to the achievements of the Indonesian National Team.
He gave an example of Masniari Wolf, an athlete from the swimming branch who successfully contributed three gold medals in the 2025 SEA Games multi-branch sports festival in Thailand.
The former Minister of SOEs said that the transfer of athletes between countries is a common thing in the world of global sports and is part of friendship between countries.
"The Indonesian legal umbrella is clear, but sports cooperation with many countries that give our athletes the opportunity to strengthen other countries or vice versa, it is okay," he said.
One example of an athlete moving to defend another country is badminton player Mia Audina, who contributed a silver medal to the Netherlands and Tony Gunawan who won the world champion while strengthening the United States.
Minister of Law Supratman Andi Agtas revealed that the Government is taking concrete steps to permanently end the controversy over the status of diaspora athletes.
"The Citizenship Law is currently being prepared, the finalization of the draft. We will hear input from the Ministry of Youth and Sports regarding what kind of citizenship athletes are. Hopefully this year will be completed," said Supratman.
The passportgate issue has hit several Indonesian players in the Eredivisie, related to work permit and salary standardization issues. In addition to Indonesia, several diaspora players from Suriname, Cape Verde, and Curacao were also affected.
The four Indonesian players who were dragged into this case were Tim Geypens, Dean James, Nathan Tjoe-A-On, Dean James, and Justin Hubner. However, now they have been declared not guilty and can return to playing for their respective clubs.
For information, passportgate is a scandal or legal controversy in the Eredivisie related to the alleged discrepancy of citizenship documents and work permits that befell a number of Indonesian national team diaspora players.
This case made several players temporarily banned from playing due to passport validity problems while defending Dutch clubs. Passportgate surfaced after there were allegations of the use of an invalid passport by Dutch-born players who then chose to defend the national team of another country.
The players who were dragged into the case were considered to have invalid documents because they had moved from Dutch citizens and had to adjust their salaries according to non-European players.
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