Suffering many injustices, Indonesia talks about leaving AFC again

"Constantly facing disadvantages in the AFC, is it time for Indonesia to move to the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA)?", Bola.Okezone asked. The newspaper said that Indonesian teams have suffered many unfair decisions from referees in the past year.

Indonesian press believes that the home team should leave AFC because of many injustices (Photo: Reuters).

The Indonesian newspaper commented: "The Indonesian U23 team suffered an unfair decision from referee Nasrullo Kabirov when they received a red card in a draw with the host U23 Qatar at the 2024 AFC U23 Championship and had to accept a 0-2 loss.

Most recently, referee Ahmed Al Kaf made a strange decision in the match between Indonesia and Bahrain. Although the Organizing Committee announced that the match would only have 6 minutes of extra time, he extended the match by 10 minutes. Finally, Bahrain scored in the 90+9 minute.

PSSI filed a complaint with the AFC regarding the two unfair decisions above, but what was the result? The AFC barely mentioned it. Instead, they also imposed penalties on coaches Shin Tae Yong, Ivar Jenner and Justin Hubner.

On the other hand, the AFC acted quickly when Bahrain requested not to play in Indonesia in the second leg of the third round of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers. Instead, they wanted the match to be held at a neutral venue. The AFC affirmed that it would discuss with the BFA, PSSI and FIFA before making a decision.

Indonesia is not satisfied with the way the referee and AFC handled the situation (Photo: AFC).

Bola.Okezone newspaper stated that the Indonesian Football Federation (PSSI) should move to UEFA to compete. They added: "Israel chose to leave the AFC to compete in UEFA due to political disagreements. Not only that, Kazakhstan also decided to join UEFA because they believe European football is more competitive.

Should PSSI learn from these two teams to leave AFC for UEFA? The chance for us to apply to UEFA is quite small but nothing is impossible."

Previously, Suara newspaper also suggested that PSSI should apply to the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) to have hope of participating in the World Cup, after witnessing the home team suffer an unfair decision in the match against Bahrain.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/the-thao/chiu-nhieu-bat-cong-indonesia-lai-noi-chuyen-roi-khoi-afc-20241021172036831.htm