Founding member Indonesia to leave ASEAN Football Federation

President Mochamad Iriawan confirmed Wednesday that the PSSI has contacted EAFF officials to discuss joining the organization.

“We will discuss it carefully but it cannot be decided immediately. Maybe the EAFF will be happy to accept Indonesia. But we will have to calculate the advantages and drawbacks in advance,” Indo newspaper Bolasport quoted Iriawan as saying.

The EAFF has 10 members – mainland China, Taiwan, Guam, Hong Kong, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Macau, Mongolia and the Northern Mariana Islands. It is currently hosting the East Asian Championship in Japan with four teams – Japan, South Korea, China and Hong Kong.

Without specifying if it was a rationale for considering quitting, Iriawan also said that PSSI has not received a response from AFF regarding Indonesia’s complaint about the Vietnam and Thailand match at the U19 AFF Championship that ended July 15. It’s been a week since they appealed and they are still waiting for the AFF’s decision, he said.

“The process must be in the right order and reviewed by the disciplinary committee. We are still waiting for the best decision from the AFF to take it as a lesson,” Iriawan said.

In the last group stage game of U19 AFF Championship, a 1-1 Vietnam-Thailand draw indirectly eliminated Indonesia from the tournament. When the score was 1-1, Vietnam and Thailand slowed down the tempo in the last 10 minutes with no intention of scoring, since both teams had secured a slot in the semifinals.

Indonesia were on par with both teams with 11 points, but were ousted on the grounds that the team had failed to score against the two opponents, while Vietnam and Thailand had scored against each other.

Indonesia officials have complained to the AFF and demanded an investigation into possible match fixing, while Indonesian fans have called on PSSI to leave AFF given the outdated regulation.

Indonesia are one of the six founding countries of the AFF in 1984, along with Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines and Brunei. Vietnam, Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia joined it in 1996, followed by Timor Leste (2004) and Australia (2013).