JAKARTA: Indonesia's embattled Football Association (PSSI) is hopeful it will avoid a FIFA ban following its gesture of compromise to another breakaway soccer league as the power struggle in Indonesian football continues. According to a Reuters news agency report, the PSSI said it would also recognize the Indonesia Super League (ISL) if the ISL top officials would hand over control to the PSSI. The country's football association already runs the previously unofficial Indonesia Premier League (LPI). The decision came after the PSSI congress in Palangkaraya, Borneo on Sunday but not all members attended the meeting, which the world governing body FIFA had ordered to happen before Tuesday. The Indonesia Soccer Rescue Committee (KPSI), featuring some PSSI members, held its own conference in north Jakarta on Sunday after growing frustrated at what it said was poor leadership by the PSSI. There the KPSI elected a new PSSI leader and deputy chairman and plan to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to have them recognised as the heads of Indonesian soccer by FIFA, Indonesian media outlet Kompas reported on Monday. Despite the KPSI's actions, the PSSI's disciplinary commission head, Bernhard Limbong, said he was “optimistic” its moves to recognise the ISL would avoid FIFA sanctions. “We have followed FIFA's order to hold a congress before March 20 and we did that,” Limbong told Reuters by telephone on Monday after the Borneo meeting. “We have also admitted Indonesia Super League, as well as Indonesia Premier League (LPI), under PSSI, which addressed FIFA's statute to unite the breakaway league into one single league.” BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/9uy6q Tags: FIFA, Football, Indonesia, sanctions Section: Football, Southeast Asia
