U-20 World Cup Without Opening And Closing Ceremony, Government Message Only 5 Minutes

JAKARTA - Menpora Zainudin Amali as chairman of the U-20 World Cup (INAFOC) held a closed meeting chaired by President Jokowi from the Bogor Presidential Palace, Tuesday, October 20. In this meeting, he ensured that there was no opening and closing ceremony in the grand celebration of the 20-year category of football.

Menpora said that holding the U-20 World Cup will be different from the Asian Games when Indonesia is the host. This time, it was only opened by remarks from the government and FIFA for a limited duration.

"The limited allocation of speech by the government and FIFA is only 5-8 minutes," said the Menpora in a meeting with the theme Development of Preparations for the 2021 U-20 World Cup.

Zainudin added, FIFA interpreted the match on the first day as the opening of the World Cup.

"Because it is the custom of the U-20s to have the first match which is the opening and the President has decided to follow what FIFA has directed," he continued.

Menpora also said that until now his party could not confirm that the U-20 World Cup in 2021 would be held with or without spectators. This certainty will depend on the development of the situation in May-June 2021.

"Are there any spectators or not, look at the situation from May to June, whether the vaccine has been evenly distributed," said Zainudin.

But he stressed that beyond all that, health protocols will be implemented strictly following the rules of the COVID-19 Handling Task Force.

In addition, FIFA will also carry out strict supervision and provide directions regarding the implementation of health protocols.

"We will communicate and hope that the safety and health of the public will be the main thing for us, we hope that May-June can be watched with a capacity of half or a limited capacity of the stadium, which clearly determines the authority to be given the authority and FIFA itself," he said.

His side also cannot confirm the arrival time of FIFA but will continue to communicate to report on the preparation of the venue on the field.