PHUKET (4 June 2016) – Erwin Dwi Budiawan from the FA of Indonesia (PSSI) said that the country is thankful that they are back in the ASEAN fold after what he termed as ‘the darkest year of Indonesian’ football following the ban by FIFA.
He said this at the AFF 5th Council Meeting for Session 2015/2016, that was held in Phuket today.
The most populous ASEAN nation was banned by international football body FIFA in the middle of 2015 and where it was only lifted following the assurance from the Indonesian government that it will not interfere in the administration of the sports body.
“We are thankful that we got out of our darkest moment. There are still some issues which we need to resolve but this we will do it internally,” said Erwin.
“Now we will start rebuilding again and we hope that we can learn from Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines on how we can build ourselves back to contention.”
Following the lifting of the ban, Indonesia did not waste any time in ggeting back into action where they have been penned down for the AFF Invitational Club Futsal Championship (in Myanmar) and also the AFF Under-19 Championship (in Hanoi).
They will also take part in the AFF Futsal Championship (in Bangkok) and of course, the blue riband event of the AFF Suzuki Cup 2016 at the end of the year.
For this year’s edition, Myanmar and the Philippines will co-host the group stage.
