The reason behind Indonesia's opposition to moving the AFF Cup to 2021

Members of the Southeast Asian Football Federation recently agreed with the proposal to move the AFF Cup to April 2021 due to the effects of the Covid-19 epidemic. Indonesia is the only country that opposes this intention.

The reason Indonesia gave is that April falls on the Holy month of Ramadan, so the players will not have the best physical strength for the matches with the dense AFF Cup.

Another important reason is that April 2021 is too close to the start of the U20 World Cup finals. Indonesia is the host country of this young World Cup finals, PSSI wants to put all efforts into organizing the tournament successfully. Of course the AFF Cup playing at this sensitive time will affect PSSI's plan to allocate resources.

"The postponement of the AFF Cup made it very difficult for us. PSSI had to worry about the U20 World Cup finals and also the time of Ramadan," Secretary General Yunus Nusi told the media.

Indonesian media also stated that PSSI would like to cancel the AFF Cup this time. If it is held in April 2021, Indonesia will not have a chance to win. In addition, the tournament at that time affected the plan that PSSI and coach Shin Tae Young had outlined.

"If AFF forces teams to play in April, we will still follow but it is difficult to fully focus, not to mention whether the World Cup qualifier will take place in October, November or not,  moving to March 2021 will overload the teams, "concluded Nusi.