by Abu Hanifah
JAKARTA, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Amid poor outcomes of its national football teams, Indonesian President Joko Widodo issued a presidential decree to boost up the quality of its national football sport.
The decree fully backs nationwide efforts to promote the quality of national football teams as well as to facilitate domestic football leagues.
Among the steps mandated by the decree are football talent scouting, increasing the number of referees and coaches, creation of sustainable and gradual national football competitions and improvement of national football system and management.
The decree also requires football stadiums to be fit with international standards, development of more private-funded training centers.
"The point is to make football an entertaining sports for the people, so we have to be seriously managing it," Chief of Presidential Staff Office Moeldoko said on Thursday to announce the decree.
To assure effectiveness, the Indonesian government assigns almost all ministries, police, governors, regents and majors to address the mandates stipulated in the executive decree.
Their joint works are based on the roadmap created to enhance development of national football.
Youth and Sports Minister Imam Nachrawi said that "we have sent national football coaches and referees to several foreign countries to make them certified with international licenses."
Nachrawi said that the efforts are aiming to develop sports resources for international events to be hosted by Indonesia in the future.
Indonesia has submitted proposals to host the 2032 Olympics after the 2018 Asian Games.
Last year, Indonesian senior football team fared badly in the Asian Games, the Southeast Asia football championship as well as the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) Cup.
And it was even disqualified by FIFA to take part in 2019 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Cup following legal dispute in Indonesian Football Association (PSSI) with investigation being conducted into match fixing allegation.
