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Persipura Fans Vent Anger
December 08, 2011

Persipura Jayapura supporters rallied in front of the Indonesian Football Association’s office at Jakarta’s Bung Karno Stadium on Thursday, demanding the PSSI convene a special meeting and clarify why the Black Pearls are not allowed to join the 2012 Asian Champions League. (JG Photo/Afriadi Hikmal) Persipura Jayapura supporters rallied in front of the Indonesian Football Association’s office at Jakarta’s Bung Karno Stadium on Thursday, demanding the PSSI convene a special meeting and clarify why the Black Pearls are not allowed to join the 2012 Asian Champions League. (JG Photo/Afriadi Hikmal)
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Hundreds of Persipura Jayapura fans protested their team’s exclusion from the Asian Champions League in front of the Indonesian Football Association’s office in Jakarta on Thursday.

The Asian Football Confederation last week announced which clubs were allowed to join its Champions League, and the Papuans weren’t included.

Persipura, which won the Indonesian Super League last season, decided to keep playing in the ISL, even though Indonesia’s FA, the PSSI, had introduced the Indonesian Premier League as the new top-flight competition in the country.

“We demand a PSSI explanation why Persipura was scrapped from the ACL,” Chakino Rossiry, chairman of the Persipura Fans Club (OPM), said in Jakarta.

“We want to have a dialogue with PSSI officials, but where are they now? They even locked the PSSI office.”

The fans also demanded PSSI president Djohar Arifin Husin publicly apologize to Papuans or step down.

“We urge all PSSI members to stage a KLB [extraordinary meeting] to mend all the problems inside the PSSI. The fact that there are two competing leagues in the country right now is proof that current management isn’t capable of doing its job,” Chakino said.

No PSSI official was seen in the office during the rally.

Persipura’s exclusion from the ACL has been surrounded by confusion. The PSSI insisted that it was because the AFC didn’t accept clubs playing in a non-official league. But an anonymous AFC official told Agence France-Presse on Tuesday that Persipura had been omitted from the event on recommendation from the PSSI, for joining the breakaway ISL.

The PSSI itself was divided on the matter.

Roberto Rouw, a member of the association’s executive committee, told state news agency Antara that the PSSI never registered Persipura to play in the 2012 ACL. “The PSSI tried to register Arema Indonesia as Persipura’s replacement in the ACL, and never registered Persipura itself. The AFC rejected the PSSI proposal to send Arema to the ACL,” Roberto said. “I asked Djohar Arifin Husin to stop lying to the public.”

The association’s deputy secretary general, Tondo Widodo, refuted the claims.

“We tried to register Persipura in the ACL but the AFC said that only clubs that play in a national association’s official competition are eligible to play there,” he said. “It’s Persipura’s fault. They joined a breakaway league.”

The AFC did not immediately respond to an e-mailed request by the Jakarta Globe to clarify the issue.

In January, the PSSI recognized the ISL as the official top league, after which a movement backed by oil tycoon Arifin Panigoro launched the breakaway IPL. But after ousting the PSSI management in July, the former rebels are now in charge and have made the IPL official.

Antara, JG