Asian Games 2018, Soccer Event Test Recommended in SUGBK

Chairman of the Organizing Committee of the Asian Games 2018 (Inasgoc) Erick Thohir recommended a soccer test event held at the Bung Karno Main Stadium (SUGBK), Senayan, Jakarta. Previously, there was a discourse that the test of football event will be held at stadiums located in West Java, such as Bogor, Bekasi, and Bandung. However, Erick recommends a soccer test event held in SUGBK for the effectiveness of the implementation related to budget availability. "For football the number of participants is four countries, so I think it is not effective if they have to travel to West Java and stay at the hotel there," Erick said when met at Inasgoc Office, Jakarta, Wednesday (17/1/2018). "We advocate in SUGBK because in this test event we hope things like transportation, catering, accreditation, ticketing, and athlete village can be active," he added. Erick prefers SUGBK as it also sees a good euphoria during a friendly match between the Indonesian and Icelandic national teams on Sunday (14/1/2018). "Therefore, why do not we take advantage of the SUGBK, let alone the budget continues to be suppressed, we hope there will be no issue of the flow of funds during the implementation of the Asian Games later," Erick said. So far, the Football Association of Indonesia (PSSI) claimed to have established communication with several countries for the implementation of test football event. However, until now there has been no recommendation from PSSI related to which countries will participate.