Indonesia Hosts the U-17 World Cup, Erick Thohir: The World Believes in Jokowi’s Leadership

The general chairman of the Indonesian Football Association (PSSI), Erick Thohir, said that Indonesia’s appointment as host for the 2023 U-17 World Cup was a form of world trust in Indonesia, under the leadership of President Joko Widodo.

“I can only express my gratitude and alhamdulillah because the FIFA Council made a joint decision to appoint Indonesia to host the U-17 World Cup this year. This is a form of world trust in Indonesia under the leadership of President Joko Widodo,” said Erick Thohir in official statement received in Jakarta, on Friday (23/6/2023).

Indonesia was set to host the 2023 U-17 World Cup through a joint decision taken at the FIFA Council meeting which was held at the FIFA Headquarters, Zurich, Switzerland. According to the plan, FIFA has scheduled the FIFA U-17 World Cup 2023 to take place from 10 November to 2 December this year. Erick said that he had not received any formal notification in writing.

“This is just an announcement made by FIFA at the FIFA Council meeting Friday night in Zurich. Now the most important thing is how we (Indonesia) prepare ourselves to be a good host,” said Erick.

FIFA’s official website does not explain in detail the reasons for selecting Indonesia as the host for the tournament for this young footballer. However, Erick said that it was highly likely that Indonesia would be chosen due to several positive factors shown during the last three months, such as improvements to stadium facilities that had passed FIFA’s due diligence and FIFA Match Day matches which had managed to attract FIFA’s attention.

“However, we must be grateful for this because FIFA’s trust in us is still high. We must protect and prove this,” said Erick.

The previous April, Peru was declared a failure to host the Under-17 World Cup due to infrastructure uncertainties, despite having been named as host four years earlier. This was the main reason that caused FIFA to revoke Peru’s host status.

Meanwhile, Indonesia itself actually hosted the U-20 World Cup on 20 May-11 June. However, FIFA revoked Indonesia’s host status on March 29, 2023, after a polemic over the existence of the Israeli national team.

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