Indonesian: When will we participate in World Cup?
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2006-06-30 09:14 Indonesian Vice President
Jusuf Kalla Thursday exploited the World Cup finals in Germany as a euphemism to
attack poor performance of the national soccer team, which has been without any
regional trophy over the last decade.
"We spend time watching Brazil and Argentina, but when will Indonesia play in
World Cup?", he asked rhetorically when opening the congress of the Indonesian
Youth National Committee (KNPI).
Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports Adyaksa Dault, who was present at the
occasion, responded with a smile.
Kalla pointed to the Cote d'Ivorie and Ghana, whose population is less than
five million each, were able to qualify to the world's most-watching sporting
event.
"But when I was asked about that, I have to defend myself by saying that
China with a population of 1.4 billion also didn't make it this time," he joked.
Indonesia is the world's fifth most population nation with 230 million.
Although soccer is one of the most favorite sports in the country, the last time
Indonesia won an international trophy was in 1992, when it was crowned gold
medal in the Southeast Asian Games.
Kalla recalled an informal conversation with Japanese Prime Minister
Junichiro Koizumi and Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi in a recent
meeting.
Koizumi asked the two leaders their most favorite sports and both Kalla and
Badawi suggested soccer. They began chatting about soccer until Kalla realized
that Japan qualified to the World Cup in Germany while Indonesia and Malaysia
were not even close to.
"So I told Badawi in Malay language 'let's end this conversation'," said
Kalla.
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