JAKARTA - The World Football Federation (FIFA) did not impose sanctions on Indonesia in the aftermath of the tragedy in the Malang Village, last October 1. FIFA actually provided assistance to Indonesia to improve national football governance.
" kindness of heart" FIFA is considered by many parties thanks to the intervention of the Minister of SOEs, Erick Thohir. His lobbying has succeeded in detaining FIFA from issuing severe sanctions to Indonesia.
Erick reportedly has a close relationship with the President of FIFA, Gianni Infantino. In fact, the good relationship between the two has been established for a long time, namely when Erick was still President of Inter Milan in 2015.
Apparently, their closeness cannot be separated from Infantino's status, who is an Interniste, loyal supporter of Inter.
"At that time, Gianni became Secretary General of the UEFA, so we often met often. Moreover, he is Italian and also an Interisti, so with my position at the FC Internazionale, we are quickly familiar," Erick said in a written statement, as quoted via Antara.
He later revealed that he had done the same thing in 2015. At that time, he took advantage of his closeness to Infantino to lobby FIFA in order to free football from sanctions.
As is known, at that time Indonesian football was subject to FIFA sanctions due to chaos between the government, in this case the former Minister of Youth and Sports Imam Nahrawi, and PSSI, who at that time was led by La Nyala Matalitti.
At that time, Erick Thohir received a mandate from President Joko Widodo to help communicate with FIFA so that the sanctions were lifted.
"At that time, I was no one. So I was also surprised when the President asked me to take care of the sanctions. Finally, because I knew Gianni well, through her, I was able to open a path to FIFA and convey the president's mandate, so the sanctions were lifted in 2016 and only ran for a year," Erick added.
Thanks to a strong relationship through football, for the second time Erick admitted that he had asked Gianni for help.
The Minister of SOEs then told how to finally meet the President of FIFA in Doha on October 5. At that time, he underwent a working visit in Europe.
"Initially, I met FIFA representatives, even though I had communicated with President Gianni. Moreover, previously President Gianni had also been in contact with our president," said Erick Thohir.
"Finally I flew to Doha to meet Gianni. When I first met each other, it was difficult for each of them to talk. We were football people, we had the same feeling about the incident," he continued.
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