Eliminated from Shopee Cup, Indonesia mocks Southeast Asian football

TPO - President Erick Thohir of the Indonesian Football Federation expressed his dissatisfaction after learning that the country's clubs were not allowed to participate in the Southeast Asian Cup 1 next season (Shopee Cup). He made some harsh words.

Before the new season of the Southeast Asian Cup 1, there was a dispute between the organizing committee and Indonesia. Indonesia said that they could not meet the request from the Southeast Asian Football Federation (AFF) to send the first and second place teams of the National Championship to participate in the regional competition. The reason is that these two teams must participate in the Asian Cup next season. The Indonesian National Championship has 34 rounds, the most rounds in the region, so Indonesia requested to receive special privileges.

Specifically, the top two teams of the Indonesian National Championship last season will play in the Asian Cup while the third and fourth teams will participate in the regional cup. However, this plan was not agreed by the AFF. The two sides refused to compromise, causing Indonesia to even be eliminated from the 2025/26 Southeast Asian Cup C1 group stage draw.

PSM Makassar (right) faced CAHN in the semi-finals of Shopee Cup 2024/25

After learning that he was “left out”, the head of the country’s Football Federation, Erick Thohir, made a mockery of the AFF. He said: “This is an unacceptable decision. But it’s okay, because this is the AFF. We aim for the Asian playground, we have our own strength and goals. No matter what, we will continue.”

“We have 18 teams in the national championship and 20 teams in the second division. Looking at Singapore, there are only 6 teams, Thailand has 16 teams, Vietnam has 14 teams, clearly we are superior in terms of the number of participating teams and the scale of the tournament,” he said. “We do not compare with countries in the region, we want to reach the Asian level.”

Thus, in the 2025/26 season, Indonesian football will have only 2 clubs competing internationally. Persib will participate in Champions League 2 and Dewa will participate in Asian Challenge 2. The possibility of them going far is very small. Because compared to the national team that massively naturalizes European players, domestic clubs in Indonesia have very limited competitiveness. Last season, even Madura United - the representative of the archipelago - lost to Svay Rieng, a club from Cambodia.

Dang Lai

Source: https://tienphong.vn/bi-loai-khoi-shopee-cup-indonesia-che-gieu-bong-da-dong-nam-a-post1757736.tpo