Keterangan Pers Bersama Presiden RI dan Presiden FIFA, di Istana Merdeka, Jakarta, 18 Oktober 2022

Presiden Republik Indonesia (Joko Widodo)
Hari ini saya bertemu dengan Presiden FIFA Mr. Gianni Infantino dan tadi kami telah melakukan pembahasan penting mengenai sepak bola Indonesia pascatragedi di Malang, 1 Oktober 2022.

Kami berdiskusi secara detail, dan dalam pertemuan itu Presiden FIFA mengungkapkan rasa duka dan simpati mendalam kepada keluarga korban dan menyampaikan kepeduliannya atas tragedi yang terjadi. Kami bersepakat bahwa tragedi ini menjadi pelajaran yang sangat penting bagi persepakbolaan Indonesia dan juga bagi dunia sepak bola. Dan jangan sampai kejadian ini terulang kembali, jangan sampai kegembiraan penonton pertandingan sepak bola berujung pada duka dan malapetaka.

Dan kami bersepakat untuk melakukan transformasi sepak bola Indonesia secara menyeluruh, memastikan semua aspek pertandingan berjalan sesuai dengan standar keamanan yang ditetapkan oleh FIFA, baik pemain maupun penonton harus terjamin keamanan dan keselamatannya. Untuk itu kita sepakat mengkaji kembali kelayakan stadion dan juga menerapkan teknologi untuk membantu mitigasi aneka potensi yang membahayakan penonton maupun pemain.

Pemerintah bersama FIFA juga bersepakat untuk memastikan pertandingan Piala Dunia U20 FIFA di Indonesia dapat berjalan dengan baik. Semua segi persiapan sampai dengan pelaksanaannya harus dipastikan berjalan sesuai standar FIFA dan ditangani secara baik, secara profesional.

Kami juga secara bersama-sama mengkaji ulang para pemangku kepentingan persepakbolaan Indonesia.

Pemerintah bersama dengan FIFA ingin memastikan proses transformasi sepak bola Indonesia berjalan sesuai dengan standar yang ditetapkan. Dengan demikian, mari kita jadikan kesepakatan ini sebagai momentum perbaikan sistem persepakbolaan Indonesia agar sepak bola Indonesia menjadi kebanggaan nasional dan tampil lebih baik lagi di masa yang akan datang.

Saya kira itu yang ingin saya sampaikan.

Presiden FIFA Gianni Infantino
Thank you very much Mr. President, ladies, gentlemen.

Well, today I had the great honor and privilege to meet the President of Indonesia. and of course the first topic, the first item of our discussion, our meeting, was for me, to express the President, to express to the family of those who lost their lives in the terrible incident of Malang, our deepest sympathy and condolences from FIFA, but from the entire world. This is a tragedy which has put us all in a state of shock. It was one of the darkest days for football and we feel with Presiden Jokowi, we feel with the families, we feel with the people. My presence here in Indonesia today is paying respect to all these people.

But also, my presence here signs a new departure for football in Indonesia. And this is what I can guarantee to the President, what I can guarantee to all the people of Indonesia, FIFA is here with you, FIFA is here to stay, FIFA is here to work in a very close partnership with the government, with the Asian Football Confederation, with the Federation of Indonesia to transform football, to reform football because football has to be joy and happiness.

So, our first priority when we come here, when we work from our FIFA offices in Indonesia, we’ll have to indeed reform and transform football in this country. This is a football country, this is a country where football is a passion for almost 300 hundred million people, they love football. And we await to them that when they go see a match, they are safe and secure. And we will do that because we agree to work together as a team, as a winning team will focus of course on the operations of the stadiums, on the stadiums themselves, on the fan behaviour, the fan engagement.

On the schools, with a project of football for school that we are going to put in place together with the government. On the infrastructure, that needs as well to be looked into because part of the incident that can happen is linked of course with the stadium infrastructure. So we will bring our experts, we will help and invest, and we will make sure that Indonesia shines on the global football stage.

And the first occasion to do that, and that is why I wanted as well to come here to Jakarta, dear President, ladies and gentlemen, is that next year we organize here together the U-20 FIFA World Cup. This is immense football,  the most important competition after the world cup. The next world cup will start in one month in Qatar, but after that we have the U-20 in which the best players of the world will come to Indonesia, and their lights and their talent will shine from Indonesia to the entire world.

To do this, we need ten state of the art stadiums. We need an operation that runs smoothly, seamlessly, because we’ll project the image of what Indonesia is to the world. And the image of Indonesia to the world is not a country which has accidents in football stadiums, it is a country which has a vision, which has projected into the future, which has a young population that love football, which one to celebrate and bring football to the world. Because football means of course joy and happiness, and the World Cup that we organize next year together, will be the unique occasion to promote Indonesia for the future, and starting from now until then and from the World Cup into the future.

We will make sure that Indonesia is not only hosting a meeting like the G20, being part of the top 20 countries in the world from the economic point of view, but also from the football point of view, the epicentre of football in this part of the world will be definitely here in Indonesia and from here will make the game grow to the entire world.

I would like to thank the President for his trust, for his engagement. I would like to thank all the people of Indonesia for their passion and their love to football, and assure all of you that we are here to stay.