The Football Federation of Indonesia (PSSI)’s Disciplinary Committee has sentenced six footballers implicated in an attempted match-fixing plot at Liga 2 Indonesia side Perserang Serang. The parties involved were five ex-Perserang players and a player from neighboring Liga 3 Indonesia side Persic Cilegon. Elsewhere, a man professing himself as Liga 1 Indonesia referee shocked Indonesian football by revealing that he had fixed two matches in this season’s Indonesian top flight.
The PSSI Disciplinary Committee came down hard on the six footballers, as they hand out a series of lengthy bans and hefty fines to ensure that they won’t be repeating the same offenses in the future.
“We’ve received a report from the Perserang management on October 28th in regards of an attempted match-fixing plot committed by someone from outside the club,” said Erwin Tobing, head of the PSSI Disciplinary Committee as quoted from the federation’s website, “After a 3-day trial we’ve gathered all of the evidence and sentenced those involved in accordance to the PSSI Disciplinary Code.”
The footballers sentenced were Eka Dwi Susanto, who is banned from football for five years and is due to pay a fine worth Rp30,000,000, Fandi Edi, who is banned for four years and have to pay an Rp20,000,000 fine, Ivan Julyandhi, who is banned for 2 years with an Rp10,000,000 fine, Ade Ivan Hafilan, who is banned for 3 years and fined Rp15,000,000, and Aray Suhendri, who, like Ivan, was banned for 2 years and fined Rp10,000,000. The quintet was sacked from Perserang the moment the club’s management found out about their match-fixing plot.
The sixth footballer sentenced was Persic Cilegon’s Muhammad Diksi Hendika, who is banned for a year and fined Rp10,000,000. Diksi was implicated in the plot after he had contacted a Perserang goalkeeper prior to the Liga 2 side’s match against Badak Lampung, informing the goalie to not let his team lose against the Laskar Saburai as he had placed a bet on a Perserang win.
Further investigation done by the Disciplinary Committee reveals that Eka was approached by an unidentified person who he refers to as Mr. X, who asked Eka to forfeit a number of matches in return for payment worth Rp150,000,000. There’s suspected foreign involvement behind the plot as Mr. X doesn’t speak fluent Indonesian, as he spoke the language with a heavy Malay accent.
Eka and the other players, who had been dabbling in sports betting as a means to get extra income, were approached by an unidentified runner who linked them up with Mr. X to serve as their bookie. Said runner revealed the attempted match-fixing plot in more depth in a talk show discussing the case on Wednesday, where the runner told the interviewer there that each player was to be paid Rp150,000,000 by Mr. X and he will be paid Rp20,000,000-Rp30,000,000 for his services should the fix goes through.
The total amount of money that was to be exchanged by this attempted plot was around Rp400,000,000.
Unfortunately, due to the limitations faced by the PSSI’s Disciplinary Committee, they couldn’t do anything to track down Mr. X.
“We have entrusted the matter of investigating Mr. X to the police,” said Erwin, “It is hoped that their investigation into this would blow the entire case wide open.”
As for Perserang’s sacked head coach Putut Wijanarko, he had known about the match-fixing plot after a number of players have informed him about it prior to Perserang’s match against Badak Lampung, however, he chose to remain silent and did not report it to anyone else as he was fearful that he might disrupt his team’s concentration in a vital relegation six-pointer – a decision that would cost Putut his job.
Mr. Y: “We Have Fixed Two Matches in This Season’s Liga 1.”
Indonesian football was further rocked on Wednesday with the revelation that two matches in the 2021/22 Liga 1 season have been fixed.
This came from the very same talk show where the Perserang runner had spilled the beans on the attempted match-fixing plot at the club. Hosted by the esteemed journalist Najwa Shihab, Wednesday’s talk show, which was held virtually, discussed the PSSI’s shortcomings in handling footballing issues this season.
Identifying himself as Mr. Y when given the opportunity to speak by Najwa, the man who claimed to be a referee in the Liga 1 revealed that he and his team had fixed two matches in the Indonesian top-flight this year.
“We’ve been instructed to fix matches and we followed those instructions down to the tee whenever we officiate a match,” said Mr. Y, “Before the match had even started we’ve been told on who will win said match, therefore we should favor them more during the game. Whenever we took the pitch we always use code to communicate with each other. This is no job for a single person – we’re all in this as a team, the whole match officials.”
“For this year we’ve already fixed two matches,” Mr. Y continued.
Mr. Y’s confessions immediately enraged Ahmad Riyadh, the head of the PSSI’s Referee Committee who was also in attendance at the talk show. Questioning the validity of Mr. Y’s statements, Ahmad immediately challenged Najwa to reveal who Mr. Y really is, threatening to take decisive action the very next day.
“If we want the PSSI to improve, please spill the beans. Once we wake up tomorrow morning, we need to know who this Mr. Y is so that we could take immediate action,” said Ahmad, as quoted from Vocket FC Indonesia, “There’s a villain hiding behind Mrs. Najwa, we couldn’t track this person down. Please, help us by revealing his identity. We will take action once we know who’s the person is.”
Najwa went on to confirm that Mr. Y is indeed a Liga 1 referee, however, journalism ethical codes stipulate that she couldn’t reveal who this person is to the public as the person has chosen to speak out anonymously.
This season’s Liga 1 have witnessed a number of questionable decisions from the referee, ranging from Marko Simic’s legitimate equalizer that was disallowed by the referee in Persija Jakarta’s 1-0 loss at the hands of Arema FC, to Irsyad Maulana’s questionable red card for diving in Persita Tangerang’s 2-2 draw with Borneo FC. It is yet to be seen whether those questionable decisions had anything to do with Mr. Y’s revelations, but should those rang true, the entire footballing fraternity in Indonesia would be shocked to its core.