Persija Jakarta have suspended young defender Alfath Fathier for two months amidst allegations that he had domestically abused his wife Ratu Rizky Nabila. The suspension was done to allow Alfath to focus on his ongoing case as well as enabling Persija to distance themselves from the controversy surrounding their player.
Ratu Rizky have accused Alfath of strangling her and beating her while she was pregnant with the newlyweds’ child, prompting the singer to file for divorce. Not only that, it was alleged that Alfath had been unfaithful to his wife and even demanded Ratu Rizky to perform an abortion once he found out that she was pregnant with his child.
The controversy first broke out on February 6th after Ratu Rizky made a string of posts on her Instagram exposing Alfath’s actions towards her throughout their marriage. Social media immediately went into a furor following Ratu Rizky’s posts and they immediately cancelled Alfath, with the hashtag #AlfathOut trending on Indonesian social media for a while. The public has been pressuring Persija to take action following the former Madura United player’s controversy and after a few days of silence the Macan Kemayoran finally made their stance known.
“A few days ago we’ve called Alfath and we had a heart-to-heart conversation with him,” said Persija club president Mohamad Prapanca as quoted from the club’s official website, “We wanted to know Alfath’s side of the story in order to know what had actually happened, as we don’t want to judge the situation based on social media posts that may be biased towards a certain party.”
Based on the meeting with Alfath, the Persija management understood what had actually happened between Alfath and Ratu Rizky, however Prapanca refused to disclose in detail what Alfath had told the club. Instead, Prapanca revealed that after hearing Alfath’s clarification, the Persija management made the decision to suspend the player for two months for the sake of both parties. In that two month period, Alfath will have no connections whatsoever with Persija, which would enable him to concentrate in his case and also enable Persija to distance themselves from all the controversy that’s happening right now.
“We’ve made the decision to relieve Alfath of his duties as a Persija player for two months so that he can focus on solving his personal issues right now,” said Prapanca.
After the cancellation of the 2020 Liga 1 Indonesia season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Persija have yet to prepare themselves for the 2021 season as they are waiting for assurances from both the Football Federation of Indonesia (PSSI) and league operators PT Liga Indonesia Baru (LIB) regarding whether the 2021 season will be held or not.