Clip shows Indonesia football chief talking about match fixing, not announcing exit from regional governing body
- Published on January 10, 2025 at 04:42
- 4 min read
- By AFP Indonesia
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"PSSI announcing a bold statement, finally the Indonesian national team officially leaving," reads Indonesian-language text on a Facebook video shared on December 24, 2024.
"From the U19 to the senior team, (Indonesia) won't be competing in the AFF Cup anymore."
The AFF Cup is a biennial tournament organised by the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF), football's governing body in Southeast Asia (archived link).
The video shows PSSI chairman Erick Thohir speaking to the press. He says: "Mr President gives his full support. And I held a meeting with the Executive Committee this morning and they also gave their full support. So, step by step, I will look for independent figures, not from the PSSI."
It then cuts to a clip of Indonesian football pundit Ronny Pangemanan, who says: "I think it is normal, we don't need to be afraid of the 'amateur' matches in the AFF Cup, the tournament also is not recognised by (world football's governing body) FIFA."
"What's our loss if we were out of the AFF? No loss for us," he adds.
Similar posts were shared elsewhere on Facebook here and here, racking up more than 4,800 views.
The video was shared after Indonesia made an early exit from the AFF Cup following a 1-0 group stage loss to the Philippines (archived link).
The PSSI chairman said he would evaluate the team's failure to advance out of the group (archived link).
The video shared online, however, does not show Erick announcing Indonesia would leave the AFF.
Match fixing crackdown
A keyword search on Google found the same clip of Erick had been uploaded to local sports news site Vivagoal Indonesia on April 29, 2023, where it was titled "To create a more transparent PSSI" (archived link).
The clips used in the false post start at the video's two-second mark and then jump to the 18-second mark.
The falsely shared video omits Erick saying he will look for "independent figures" to supervise the PSSI's efforts in eradicating match fixing.
Below is the screenshot comparison between the video in the false post (left) and the video from Vivagoal Indonesia's YouTube channel (right):
In the press conference, Erick also announced the formation of two task forces to look into match fixing and oversee football finances (archived link).
The PSSI's official YouTube channel streamed a video of the same press conference, from a slightly different angle, on April 28, 2023 (archived link).
There have been no official reports, as of January 10, 2025, that Indonesia is leaving the AFF. Indonesia remains listed as a member of the federation on the AFF's official website (archived link).
Pundit's 2023 comments
The clip of football pundit Ronny Pangemanan was shared on his YouTube channel on August 28, 2023 (archived link).
The portion of the video used in the false posts starts at its 2:46 mark.
Below is a screenshot comparison of the clip used in the false posts (left) and the video from Ronny's YouTube channel (right):
Ronny was responding to calls from local football fans for the PSSI to leave the AFF after Indonesia lost on penalties to Vietnam in the final of the AFF Under-23 Cup (archived link).
AFP has debunked other misinformation that has spread in football-mad Indonesia here and here.
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