'Southeast Asian football is held back by violence'

The 2023 Southeast Asian Games were successfully held in Cambodia and officially closed on the evening of May 17. With the thoughtful organization, the host country received a shower of compliments from fans in the region as well as international friends.

However, the brawl between U.22 Thailand and U.22 Indonesia in the men's football final has somewhat affected the image of SEA Games 32. Many major newspapers in the world continuously reported on this match and they called it one of the ugliest endings in a major sports festival.

Ugly images continuously appear on major newspapers around the world.

A horrifying ending of the SEA Games

On May 18, the Indonesian Football Association (PSSI) also sent preliminary reports to FIFA about the incident. Witnessing what happened, Mr. Gianni Infantino could only shake his head in disappointment and shared: “Southeast Asian football has the potential to develop both in depth and breadth. However, it is held back by violence and other social problems.

The incident that happened on the evening of May 16 was truly regrettable. If it was a riot between players, the team leaders should have taken measures to stop it, but they rushed into the melee, and together with the players, continued it.

Mr. Gianni Infantino could only shake his head at what he witnessed.

Disappointed with what he witnessed, Mr. Gianni Infantino also did not forget to remind the football authorities to investigate and seriously handle the incident.

“The images in the SEA Games final have sent a negative image to the football world. I hope that after a series of incidents in Southeast Asian football, the managers of AFC, AFF and member football federations will look back and find ways to prevent similar things from happening in the future. Such actions must be severely punished.”

He called for a thorough handling of violent acts at matches.

Things that should not happen at an event like the SEA Games

Since becoming the head of FIFA, Mr. Gianni Infantino has focused on investing to develop slow-growing football regions such as Southeast Asia. He has repeatedly come to help finance Southeast Asian football as well as visit and watch matches in this region. Most recently, at the second leg of the AFF Cup 2022 final at Rajamangala Stadium between the Vietnamese team and the Thai team, Mr. Gianni Infantino was also present.

However, Southeast Asian football has continuously encountered incidents such as the Kanjuruhan disaster that killed 135 people in October 2022 in Indonesia, the "Land of Thousand Islands" was stripped of the right to host the U.20 World Cup because of fan protests and most recently the ugly image in the final match of the 32nd SEA Games.

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