JAKARTA - The Indonesian League 1 competition will be held starting July 1. There are several new things that will be presented in the new season.
Chairman of the All-Indonesian Football Association (PSSI) Erick Thohir said there were six new breakthroughs for Liga 1 2023/2024. First, making Indonesian football stand out from the business aspect.
Reflecting on his visits to Japan and Germany a few weeks ago, the business aspect, according to Erick Thohir, is an important basis for having good league quality as well as a strong football team.
"Indeed, the quality of a country's ball will progress when there is commercialization blood itself. Yesterday benchmarking with Japan, PSSI's income is almost 200 million US dollars," Erick said while attending the 2023/2024 Liga 1 press conference.
"They have extraordinary training facilities, that's why the Japanese football team has a strong and good program because he has a strong financial foundation."
"It can be seen that the German League's revenue is approximately US$4.2 billion, the second largest under the Premier League. What does that mean, when the league has very strong funding, the quality of the league goes up. That's an unavoidable fact," he added.
In terms of stadium facilities, the man who also serves as Minister of State-Owned Enterprises (BUMN) revealed that the second, third, and fourth Premier League 1 breakthroughs next season are the first time all clubs have an E-Board LED, the use of VAR which began in February 2024, and also the renovation of 22 stadiums with Rp1.9 trillion funds which will be reviewed directly by President Joko Widodo.
"This league breakthrough is extraordinary, this is the first time the whole club has an LED. Yes, like on TV every club is on. No less cool than the Premier League," Erick said as quoted by Antara. "Moreover, the breakthrough is VAR. This is a show that can be international standards. God willing, in February it can work."
"The stadium facilities, the government will renovate according to the blue print presented to FIFA. A total of 22 stadiums will be led directly by the President for him to check what the renovation of this stadium looks like, 22 stadiums, 1.9 trillion," he added.
Then, Erick said the fifth breakthrough was about the quality of the referee, which today was carried out by a training hosted by a Japanese referee.
"We are training now. Now there are two Japanese referees, while training June 15-20 if I'm not mistaken. There is one referee who focuses on reviewing referees in the league independently professionally, there is also one referee who will mentor the regions so that the standards are the same," said Erick.
Sixth, Erick said the new 2023/2024 Liga 1 breakthrough was about regulations on the number of foreign players who used the format of five free foreign players and one Southeast Asian player.
Especially one player from Southeast Asia, the 53-year-old man said the rule was to make Liga 1 Indonesia the number one league in Southeast Asia.
"Moreover, now we have standards according to AFC 5+1 rules. But especially this year, if you want to be the number one league in Asean, we are the best Asean players who play in the Indonesian League," said Erick.
With the several breakthroughs mentioned above, Erick hopes that related parties can work well together to make Indonesian football continue to advance.
"I hope of course this seriousness is built together for higher dream airlines," said Erick.
Meanwhile, next season's Liga 1 will have a two-term format, namely regular series and championship series which will take place from July 1, 2023 to May 26, 2024.
The regular series will take place from July 1, 2023 to April 28, 2024, followed by 18 clubs that will fight with the home and away system.
After that, the top four teams will advance to the championship series with a home and away format which will be held from May 4-26, 2024. The top three teams in the championship series round will get tickets to compete in competitions between Asian clubs next season.
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