Indonesia to Sue English Football Club Everton

Malaysian U-22 players training at Senayan, Jakarta, on Monday. (Antara Photo/Yudhi Mahatma)

Jakarta (AFP) - The organizers behind Indonesia’s Java Cup said Wednesday they will sue English football club Everton and Turkey’s Galatasaray after the teams withdrew from the tournament.

Everton said on Tuesday it was forced to abandon plans to play the pre-season tournament, stating “unresolved issues mean that the risk of travelling was too great”.

The withdrawal came one day after Galatasaray, forcing the inaugural Java Cup, which was scheduled for July 26--29, to be postponed indefinitely.

“[The] consequences of the cancellation for Everton is [they] pay back all the damages,” Patrick Mbyaya, a lawyer representing the tournament, told a press conference.

“We will also contact the England Football Association to give disciplinary [sanctions] to Everton. If they refuse to pay back, we’ll take this to the Court of Arbitration for Sports [in Switzerland],” he said.

The lawyer added the same applied to Galatasaray.

Widjajanto, chief executive of The Liga Prima Indonesia Sportindo (LPIS) which organized the event, said: “This withdrawals are very odd and we really regretted their decision... the investors clearly suffered a big loss of money.”

The organizer showed to reporters a letter dated July 25 from the English Premier League’s chairman David Richards as the first official notification that Everton would not attend the event.

The letter said: “Both Everton and the Barclays Premier League deeply regret that their involvement in the competition in Jakarta will not be possible.

“The club’s decision to stay here in the UK was not meant to show any disrespect to neither your country, the Indonesian Football Association nor any of the other stakeholders involved in the competition,” Richards said.

The tournament, which was to include an Indonesian XI and a Malaysian XI, had been scheduled to be held at Jakarta’s Gelora Bung Karno stadium, scene of a deadly stampede in November and fatal clashes between fans in May.

The latest events provide further embarrassment for Indonesian football, which has long been mired in controversy and was threatened with suspension by world body FIFA following the launch of a rebel league.

Agence France-Presse