Jakarta, IO – The recent decision by FIFA to revoke Indonesia’s status as host for the upcoming U-20 World Cup is not only a harsh lesson for Indonesian politicians, but it is also a huge let down for Indonesia’s soccer fans not to mention the country’s U-20 team which had to be disbanded after three long years of preparation.
Bali Governor I Wayan Koster and Central Java Governor Ganjar Pranowo, both of whom said they would reject the participation of the Israeli Soccer Team in the U-20 World Cup, broke the cardinal rule of separating politics from sports. Now Indonesia’s soccer fans are returning the favor to Koster and Pranowo on their social media accounts, harshly criticizing both politicians and in many cases saying they would have to reconsider their support for them at the ballot box.
Koster and Pranowo might have calculated that an attack on Israel would play well with Indonesians. But with the exception of a relatively small number of conservative Muslims, it did not.
Pure and simple, politics and sports don›t and will never mix well. And if political considerations were allowed to trump sports, one can imagine the chaos that would ensue if politicians were to continuously interfere in sporting events based on the state of their relations with each other.
This is precisely the reason why in sports there is a principle known as lex sportiva, which essentially says that sport has laws that are autonomous, independent and universally applicable.
International sports federations commonly invoke lex sportiva when they assert their right to set their own rules without any interference. In the case of FIFA the governing regulations for all members are contained in the FIFA Statutes, which in Article 3:includes the principle of non-discrimination and states that each member of the federation may not *discriminate against countries, individuals or groups on the basis of ethnicity, gender, language, religion or politics”.
Read: Anti-money laundering law and penalization
As a member of the federation, it is Indonesia›s responsibility to uphold the Statutes› regulations and principles. By barring the Israeli Soccer Team it was clear that Indonesia was in breach of Article 3 of the Statutes and it was FIFA›s right and responsibility to revoke Indonesia›s status as host country.
Unfortunately this revocation was not only an embarrassment but Indonesia also squandered a perfect opportunity for the country to be seen as the host of a prestigious event for what is the world›s most popular sport. The U20- World Cup would have been not only good for Bali, it would have been a powerful follow-up event to last year›s G20- Summit and brought Indonesia back again on the global front stage.