Indonesian Football Association denies leaving AFC to join new association

Recently, some Asian media broke the news that Japan may leave the AFC and establish the East Asian Football Confederation, and Indonesia will be invited to join the new association.

However, Yunus Nusi, secretary-general of the Indonesian Football Association, denied this information. After returning from attending the AFC meeting in Saudi Arabia, Nusi said: "Some AFC member countries asked us about the rumors about Japan and South Korea leaving the AFC."

"This is nonsense. We hope that such information will disappear as soon as possible. Indonesian fans should not spread such rumors. This is not good for the Indonesian Football Association and the Indonesian team. The AFC is very sensitive to media information."

Previously, Football Tribe contacted sources within the Japan Football Association to inquire about this matter. An anonymous official revealed: "This news is completely baseless. No one knows the source of these rumors, it is pure nonsense." The above news comes from the Iraqi media UTV. The media said the Japan Football Association was dissatisfied with the AFC's management and unfair decisions. Therefore, they considered leaving the AFC and forming their own association, the East Asian Football Confederation. If the plan goes through, Iraq, Uzbekistan, Australia, Indonesia and Thailand will consider joining the new association.

The Japan Football Association is very dissatisfied with the reform of the AFC Champions League elite league. Last season, starting from the quarter-finals, the games were arranged to be held in Saudi Arabia, a neutral venue. They believe that the AFC relies on financial support from Saudi Arabia and Qatar. The result is that the AFC has made many unfair decisions in favor of teams from West Asia. Indonesia has also suffered some unfair treatment recently and had to participate in the fourth stage of the World Preliminaries in Saudi Arabia. The AFC even arranged for West Asian referees to officiate the match between Indonesia and the host Saudi team.