Indonesia Has No Strong Reason To Leave AFF

The Indonesian national team will continue to compete in every ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) event. (Between)

JAKARTA - PSSI General Chair Mochamad Iriawan confirmed that Indonesia would remain a member of the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF).

Indonesia's decision to remain part of the AFF has been issued by the Southeast Asian football parent. The official letter has been received by PSSI.

"We are still in the AFF because we are in the Southeast Asia region," said Iriawan after watching the AFF Cup match between the Indonesian U-16 national team at the Maguwoharjo Stadium, on Saturday, August 6 night.

The discourse of PSSI wanting to move the organization to the East Asian Football Federation (EAFF) had reached its peak.

The discourse arose because the parent of national football was disappointed with the match between Thailand and Vietnam in the 2022 AFF U-19 Cup in July.

At that time, PSSI considered Vietnam and Thailand 'flirting' not looking for a winner. Both teams closed the match with the score equally strong, 1-1.

This result made the Indonesian U-19 national team unable to advance to the semifinals of the U-19 AFF because they lost head to head with Vietnam and Thailand. In fact, Indonesia's chance at that time was quite large.

This disappointment made PSSI send an objection to the AFF. The protest note was then discussed and investigated, but no irregularities were found in the match.

"We received a reply from the AFF because of their decision because it was in accordance with the disciplinary commission (Komdis). The AFC was also there and considered the game to be no problem," said Iriawan.

Indonesia itself played an important role in the AFF as one of the five founding countries of the federation in 1984. The other four countries are Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines.