Anger in Indonesia over FIFA president's match
A wave of anger swept Indonesia over a soccer match in which FIFA president Gianni Infantino participated alongside officials from the local federation, shortly after a stampede during a soccer match killed 133 people.
Infantino traveled to Indonesia two weeks after the October 1 disaster in which 133 spectators were killed when police used tear gas at the end of a match between Arima and Persibaya Surabaya in Malang, East Java, which led to a stampede.
Infantino met the country's President Joko Widodo in the capital Jakarta, committed to the decision of the International Federation to strengthen protection during matches and reform football in Indonesia.
However, the local federation for the game this morning published pictures on social networking sites showing Infantino playing a match with the president of the local federation, Muhammad Iriawan, who is calling to resign from his position, during which they appeared smiling and exchanging greetings.
"Instead of playing football together, it would have been better for the two of them to go together to the victims of the Kanjuruhan tragedy," Indonesian actor Fino J Bastian said in a tweet to his 1.9 million followers, which was admired by more than 20,000.
He also criticized the "Bandit Football" account, which is very popular among Indonesian football fans with 600,000 subscribers, "133 people died."
And your boss comes here to enjoy playing football and laughing?
Why don't you enjoy playing at Kanjurohan Stadium?
Shame on FIFA.
The local union's tweet received more than 4,000 comments, most of which were negative, while the controversy was ranked among the most important topics discussed on social networking sites in Indonesia today.
"I can't believe that the federation, which is already in the hot seat, and its president, thought it was a good idea to be filmed laughing and kicking the ball with the FIFA president," local football expert Panjiran Syahan told AFP.
A team investigating the disaster last week called on the head of the Indonesian Football Association, the former police chief in Jakarta, to resign along with his entire executive committee.
On the other hand, there was no comment from the federation regarding questions about Tuesday's match, while Infantino had described the disaster, which killed more than 40 children among the dead in the stampede, as "one of the darkest days of football."
Follow our latest local and sports news and the latest political and economic developments via Google news