INDONESIA WANT TO COMPETE IN ASIAN GAMES

JAKARTA (Oct 20, 2001) – The Indonesian FA will be appealing that the national team is allowed to compete in the football competition at the 2002 Pusan Asian Games.

The FA are hoping the governing body for Indonesian sports (KONI) will give the green light for them to send a team to the Asian Games. Indonesia have missed the last three editions of the Games in Beijing (1990), Hiroshima (1994) and Bangkok (1998).

The Indonesian football team have not competed because the relevant authorities felt the team was not up to the mark and did not fulfill the necessary criteria set by the KONI.

According to Kompas, PSSI’s Eddi Elison was reported as saying that the association had drawn up a training programme for the national team for the Asiad.

However, he said that PSSI had to convince KONI to allow them to send a team to the Asiad.

Meanwhile, an official in charge of the Asian Games trainees, Imron ZS, said that football did not comply with the necessary criteria and there were no plans at the moment to include the sport in the Asiad. Any decision, he said, must come from KONI.

The criteria required are the sport must be KL SEA Games finalists, ranked top five in Asia or have scholarships from the IOC or Olympic Solidarity programme.

At the moment, 20 sports have been identified for the Asian Games.