Top Indonesian soccer official questioned in fixing scandal

JAKARTA: Indonesia’s top football official, who has been in the job less than a month, was questioned by police Monday over a match-fixing scandal that has rocked the Southeast Asian nation’s domestic league.

Joko Driyono became acting president of the Football Association of Indonesia (PSSI) in late January after former chairman Edy Rahmayadi stepped down in the wake of a corruption probe that has seen police identify more than a dozen suspects.

Driyono was questioned Monday over allegations he was involved in destroying evidence of match-fixing, national police spokesman Dedi Prasetyo said. “The main focus of today’s examination concerns the problem of destruction, theft and removal of evidence,” Prasetyo told reporters.

Police raided Driyono’s apartment last week and confiscated laptops, flash drives and dozens of documents, including match and financial records.He has been slapped with a 20-day travel ban but has not yet been arrested. Indonesian football has recently been rocked by a series of match-fixing allegations. The PSSI and police announced a crackdown on match-fixing in December after an executive member of the association was caught on tape trying to bribe a coach approximately $10,000 to throw a second-division game.

He resigned and was handed a three-year ban and fine by a PSSI disciplinary committee. While it has a low international profile, Indonesia has attracted Premier League players including former Chelsea star Michael Essien and Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Didier Zokora. But Indonesian football has been tarnished on the global stage by a host of problems over the years, including deadly hooliganism and foreign players dying after going unpaid and being unable to afford medical care.