Menpora Dito Ariotedjo Ensures U-23 Football National Team Joins The 2023 Asian Games

Menpora Dito Ariotedjo emphasized that Football will participate in the 2023 Asian Games. (Instagram @ditoariotedjo)

JAKARTA - Menteri Pemuda dan Olahraga (Menpora), Dito Ariotedjo memastikan olahraga sepak bola akan tampil di ajang Asian Games 2023 di China.

Dito Ariotedjo confirmed this after holding a meeting with representatives of KONI, KOI and the Ministry of Youth and Sports review team on Tuesday, July 25 at noon WIB. Although he has not explained in detail the strategy that will be implemented later, the Menpora acknowledged that the results of the meeting had confirmed that the football sport would depart.

"There are 32 (sports departing), I will check again later. Including (The U-23 National Team for) football," said the Menpora when met at the Ministry of Youth and Sports on Tuesday, July 25.

Furthermore, Dito also said that the budget for the departure of the football sport will later be borne by the government, even though this sport is not targeted to win a medal.

Although no medal target has been determined, the Menpora said they did not want Garuda Muda to appear without purpose. From the government, it is certain that they will set a target to motivate players.

"Yes, this is what we still want the contingent to be called, we still have to have a target. Maybe it's without a target to encourage the athletes," said Dito Ariotedjo.

Regarding the exact number of contingents that will depart, the exact number has not yet entered the final stage. That's because the meeting with KOI and KONI is only an early stage and it still takes time to consider a number of aspects.

"Today is the first meeting after KOI held a congress and KONI conducted a National Conference. So we will review this for the first time, we have finalized some,"

"And I ask to review again to make sure the results are the way we wanted at the SEA Games (2023) yesterday. Earlier we finished the review meeting, the plan was to finalize this week," said Dito Ariotedjo.

For the composition of the U-23 national team players who will appear in the 2023 Asian Games, PSSI will send U-20 players who canceled their appearance at the 2023 U-20 World Cup. This Asian Games itself will use the U-24 policy, as a result of the postponement of the multi-event event for one year.