Indonesia's football federation insists its surprise interest in
hosting the 2022 World Cup finals is a serious bid, not a
novelty.
Despite its lack of success on the field, the world's most
populous Muslim nation would be an ideal host and a serious rival
to world football's heavyweights, said Nugraha Besoes, general
secretary of the country's football federation.
"This bid is no joke, we've been planning it for a long time -
this is a serious bid," Besoes told Reuters in an interview on the
sidelines of the Asian Football Confederation's annual
congress.
"Everyone is crazy about football in Indonesia. People will come
to all the games and we have what it takes to host the tournament.
This bid will open everyone's eyes to Indonesia."
Indonesia have only reached the World Cup finals on one
occasion, as the Dutch East Indies in 1938, and Besoes admitted
raising the level of the national team was a top priority.
"Our team lacks discipline and needs to perform well - this is
our main focus," he said.
"We have to greatly improve our grassroots development, we have
to become one of Asia's best teams and we have 12 years to work on
that."
He said dozens of Indonesian players of less than 14 years of
age were based permanently in Uruguay to expose them to a higher
level of play, and hundreds more would be sent in future.
Besoes gave no projection for the funding needed to host the
finals but said the bid had received guarantees from investors and
the government.
He said Indonesia had gained valuable experience as a co-host of
the 2007 Asian Cup when packed stadiums and fights for match
tickets showed there was massive support among the country's 226
million people.
"There have been some negative signals from outside Indonesia
about this bid, doubting we can be hosts, but people are crazy
about football here," he said.
Australia, England, Japan, Mexico, Russia and the United States
have bid for both the 2018 and 2022 tournaments, along with two
joint proposals from Belgium and the Netherlands and Spain and
Portugal.
South Korea, Indonesia and Qatar have confirmed their interest
in hosting the 2022 finals.
The Indonesian bid pledges seven new stadiums and major upgrades
to five existing venues, with matches held in 11 different cities
across the sprawling archipelago, including in Banda Aceh, a region
once roiled by decades of conflict.
Besoes sought to allay security concerns and said the government
had taken great strides to prevent the bombings which rocked
Jakarta and the resort island of Bali in recent years.
"We are not seeing anything like we did before," he added.
"There's no more terrorism here, things are now back to
normal."
Besoes said South Africa's successful bid for the 2010 finals
showed that countries with limited on-field success were capable of
hosting the World Cup.
"If South Africa can do it, why can't we?" he said. "We have the
fifth-biggest population in the world, a love of football and a
beautiful country - why can't it be us?"
