Observer: Zainudin Amali Must Withdraw From Menpora's Position

Menpora Zainudin Amali. (Doc. Kemenpora Site)

JAKARTA National Football Observer, Kesit Budi Handoyo emphasized that Zainudin Amali must resign from his position as Minister of Youth and Sports (Menpora) after being elected as Deputy General Chair (Waketum) of PSSI.

Amali is confirmed to have received the position of Deputy I in the extraordinary PSSI 2023 congress (KLB) which took place yesterday at the Shangri-La Hotel, Jakarta, Thursday, February 16 yesterday. He was like getting a windfall.

The reason is, Yunus Nusi, who was actually elected Deputy of PSSI, decided to resign. The position was then given to Amali, who was in third place in the vote acquisition.

"He should resign. If not, what will happen later? Later, for example, the General Chairperson wants to meet the Minister of Youth and Sports, which means who he meets?" said Kesit when contacted by VOI, Friday, February 17.

Kesit explained that if Amali did not resign from the position of Menpora, there would be a conflict of interest within PSSI. This will happen when the parent of national football has to deal with the Menpora.

He said that automatic problems would arise if General Chair Erick Thohir was busy, so he had to send his deputy to meet the Menpora.

"For example, Ketum (Erick Thohir) could not attend and sent a deputy chairman, while the deputy chairman was the Menpora. Not good in a sports organization. Moreover, football is currently being really required to improve its image, improve governance," he said.

The election of the vice chairman at the congress yesterday was actually filled with turmoil. The voting process must be carried out twice after the owner of voting rights (voters) suspected fraud.

The results of the initial election determined that Amali and Yunus Nusi won the chair of vice chair I and II. Both defeated former PSSI secretary general Ratu Tisha Destria who received the third most votes.

However, the result received strong protests from the voters because some of the names they chose were not read out during the counting process. The election finally had to be held again.

In that re-election, Tisha and Yunus collected 54 and 53 votes each, beating Amali in third place who got 44 votes. The drama then continued when Yunus chose to resign after the re-election.

Yunus' resignation made Amali automatically rise to become a representative to accompany Tisha. Later Amali was appointed to occupy Deputy I and Tisha to be Deputy II.

Amali's appointment to occupy Deputy I's position also raises questions. The reason is, if you follow the number of votes, the one who has the right to occupy the position is Tisha.

"This time the KLB recorded it because for the first time in my experience, this is the first time there has been an election being repeated because the vote count has been chaotic. Previously it had never been," he said.

This time the KLB was held faster than it should have been in November. This step was taken to reform national football governance after the tragedy of Kanjuruhan on October 1, which killed 135 lives.