Jakarta, IO – Indonesia is estimated to have suffered up to hundreds of billions of losses after it was removed as host of the U-20 World Cup by FIFA. Many sectors, especially tourism, will be impacted. This does not even include the funds spent on building and renovating stadiums and other infrastructure.
The government’s total budget for the junior-level World Cup is estimated to be Rp600 billion. Other sources even claimed that the government has spent up to Rp1.4 trillion. In addition, the Sports and Youth Ministry (Kemenpora) also allocated Rp500 billion in June 2022.
In the tourism sector, the loss will be in the potential number of foreign visitors who come to support their national teams. At the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, the country saw a surge in tourists of up to 2.56 million people, an increase from 600,000 in 2021. In Indonesia, world-class sporting events like this can spur the economy.
The MSME sector is also expected to lose out. The Indonesian Employers Association’s (Apindo) MSME division head Ronald Walla said the prestigious event should be a welcomed opportunity for MSMEs that produce souvenirs, food and beverages and other services to reap up to billions of Rupiah.
“If the average number of visitors a day reaches 30,000 people and for example a third of them spend just Rp100,000 each for food or drinks plus souvenirs, our conservative calculation is that their turnover can be up to Rp1 billion. That’s just for one day,” said Ronald.
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It isn’t just financial losses. The national team coach Shin Tae-yong also talked about immaterial losses, namely the dream of players that is quashed despite them having trained so hard, sacrificing valuable time and energy.
Shin Tae-yong deeply regretted the cancellation. In his view, the World Cup event, even at the junior level, will be very influential in the course of a country’s football development. “It will trigger extraordinary progress,” he said. (un)