So Anies Baswedan Is Proud, The IYC 2021 JIS Venue Turns Out To Have Weaknesses In The Eyes Of The U-18 Indonesia All Star Coach

The coach of Indonesia All Star U-18, Ilham Romadhona (center), mentioned the lack of JIS as the venue for IYC 2021. (Photo: Instagram/@iycindonesia)

JAKARTA - The Jakarta International Stadium (JIS) will be the venue for the 2021 International Youth Championship (IYC).

JIS is a football stadium with a maximum capacity of 82 thousand spectators which will be completed in 2022. The construction process took three years and included two training fields nearby.

The JIS field uses hybrid grass. Five percent of the grass is artificial (synthetic) of the "limonta" type and the rest is natural grass from the Zoysia matrella species originating from Boyolali, Central Java.

JIS is not fully opened yet. The initial soft launch will only be carried out on April 19, 2022 or on the day the IYC 2021 final match will be held.

However, the coach of the U-20 Indonesia All Star team, Ilham Romadhona, saw from this stadium. He assessed that the quality of the JIS field needed to be improved, especially in several respects.

"For a stadium of this size, there must be improvements, especially on the edges that are not perfect. The grass is not thick and a bit dry. Hopefully it can be managed well because JIS is also one of our proud stadiums," Ilham said at a press conference at JIS , as quoted by Antara.

The man who was once a coach for the Garuda Select team emphasized that the quality of facilities is one of three important factors in the development of football.

That's what makes him hope that JIS can continue to be used for various football competitions, especially those involving young players, and not just stop at the 2021 International Youth Championship (IYC) which is currently underway.

"I hope that there will be an early age tournament here, in addition to the U-18 and U-20," said Ilham.