Thursday, February 07, 2019
High Profile Resignations Hit Indonesian Football
These are heady times in Indonesian football what with match fixing allegations continuing to blight what remains of the game's image, a national general election on the horizon and some high profile figures stepping down from their high profile positions.
In the wake of PSSI calling a number of social media accounts in for talks on match fixing allegations a police task force has raided their offices in search of information. Quite what these allegations say about so called professional bodies whose job, they claim, is to identify games which have been fixed by betting activity, is a moot point.
Moot maybe but one worth bearing in mind as the Indonesian football association recently inked a wide ranging agreement with Spain's La Liga including how to clamp down on match fixers. Other such 'integrity' partners have arrived in a puff of acclaim only to disappear as they are replaced.
Towards the end of January the PSSI chief Edy Rahmyadi stepped down saying he had failed in the position. The resignation surprised many, he had after claimed he wouldn't resign a month earlier, but delighted many more who had been less than impressed with his leadership which had seen him take time off to run in a gubernatorial election, slap a supporter on the terraces at a game, and rebuke a journalist for having the temerity to ask him a question.
Now we have news Persija's main director Gede Widiade has resigned though not, he stresses, because of documents that may or may not have been incriminating which may ortugas kami sudah selasai' or basically our work is done!
may not have been shredded. No. he says his resignation isn't politically motivated and perfectly normal. In fact, he says, '
Yep, perfectly normal to quit the champions as they prepare for vital AFC Cup ties.
Gede was previously involved with Bhayangkara, who were Liga 1 champions in 2017 and announced his arrival at Persija with the hashtag PersijaGW in a bid to appeal to the club supporters. GW, as well as being his initials, is short for Gue which roughly translates as I am.
Quite where this leaves Persija is another question of course and of course there is no evidence either Edy or Gede have been involved in anything underhand and it is unlikely local media will dig to deep into latest events. All we can do is pull up a chair, crack open a beer or six and order a pizza.
And remind ourselves the Liga 1 season won't actually start until May!
# posted by Me @ 5:19 PM 
