Indonesia's football chief backed a US$20 billion FIFA plan few others wanted

Erick Thohir, who chairs Indonesia's football association PSSI, was one of the few senior figures to back FIFA president Gianni Infantino's plan to bring private investors into the commercial side of the World Cup. The vehicle, called FIFA Forward Enterprise, was meant to raise US$20 billion from outside money and take control of football's biggest events, including the men's and women's World Cups. Joshua Kushner, brother of Jared Kushner, was among the investors named. Regional bodies pushed back, the Asian Football Confederation among them, and the plan was dropped. The South China Morning Post asked why Indonesia went the other way.

Thohir's own reason was gratitude. He said Indonesian football owed FIFA for standing by it through years of crisis, including the long repair job after a stadium disaster. Analysts quoted by the Post read the move differently. Staying on good terms with Infantino is useful right now, because Indonesia wants FIFA's money and political support to rebuild its standing and claim a bigger role in the world game. Critics answered that gratitude is a thin basis for endorsing something most of football disliked, and that Indonesian football would get more from domestic funding and grassroots work than from another show of loyalty.

Why it matters

If you follow Liga 1 or pay for a child's football academy, the money that changes anything is local: safer stadiums, better pitches, coaches who get paid on time. A seat close to FIFA's president does not deliver that by itself. Watch what Indonesia actually asks FIFA for next, and whether any of it reaches clubs and youth programmes rather than officials and their travel.