Indonesian football receives penalty from FIFA: Heavy impact on decisive match against China team

Indonesian team affected in decisive match against Chinese team on June 5

According to the country's press, as reported by CNN Indonesia, PSSI has received two penalties from FIFA, including a fine of up to 400 million rupiah (about 630 million VND), and being forced to reduce the number of fans by 15% in the match against the Chinese team on June 5 at Gelora Bung Karno Stadium (with a capacity of up to 77,193 seats).

Indonesian fans will get a 15% discount when coming to watch the match against China on June 5 in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers.

Photo: Reuters

These penalties are related to the incident in which Indonesian fans had many inappropriate actions, such as chanting xenophobic slogans or hateful words against the Bahrain team, during the meeting between the two teams on March 25 in the third qualifying round of the 2026 World Cup in Asia.

"This is the consequence that PSSI has to accept from the unnecessary agitation of the fans. We have to pay a fine of nearly half a billion rupiah, but the biggest problem is that the incident has caused a lot of impact on the team's psychology," said Mr. Arya Sinulingga, a member of the PSSI Executive Committee.

"The Indonesian team's upcoming very important match against the Chinese team, which is decisive for the chance to win a ticket to the 2026 World Cup or continue to the 4th qualifying round, but in the context of the stadium having to reduce the number of spectators by 15% according to FIFA's decision.

We are planning to close the stands behind the goals, that is, the north and south sides of the stadium. But we can also convince FIFA to reserve these areas for the anti-discrimination community, or a special community, like families… to fill the stadium.

We will submit the plan to FIFA, including the seating chart, 10 days before the match. Hopefully FIFA will accept it," Mr. Arya Sinulingga added.

The Indonesian team is looking forward to the next two matches in Group C of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers in Asia, to ignite their hopes of qualifying for the finals. In the most crucial match, they need to take advantage of their home field and the support of their fans to defeat the Chinese team (taking place at 8:45 p.m. on June 5), followed by the match against the Japanese team at 5:35 p.m. on June 10.

The Japanese team has a ticket to the 2026 World Cup, so the archipelago team hopes to have an easy match and win at least 1 valuable point.

In Group C of the 3rd qualifying round of the 2026 World Cup in Asia, the Indonesian team is ranked 4th with 9 points, after the Saudi Arabian team (10 points). The Australian team is second in the group with 13 points, holding the opportunity to officially win the 2nd ticket in the group to the final round after the Japanese team. Meanwhile, the 2 teams China and Bahrain have 6 points each, ranked 5th and 6th respectively, the eliminated positions.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/bong-da-indonesia-nhan-an-phat-tu-fifa-anh-huong-nang-tran-quyet-dau-doi-trung-quoc-185250511111403004.htm