Indonesia sends formal complaints to Vietnam and Thailand
One day after the home team was eliminated, the Indonesian Football Association PSSI held an emergency meeting on the afternoon of July 11th. After the meeting, President Iriawan wrote on Instagram: "PSSI and I agreed to take decisive action and send a formal complaint to the Southeast Asian Football Association about yesterday's series. I hope AFF can consider it. Reconsider our proposal".
The meeting also included Endri Erawan, head of the delegation, and Indra Sjafri, technical director of the PSSI, according to the Bola website. They believe Vietnam and Thailand are showing signs of a lack of fair competition. Iriawan did not talk further about the official news, but before that, Erawan asked the AFF to exclude Vietnam and Thailand from the competition.
Indonesia are unbeaten in Group A with three wins and two draws. They scored 17 goals and conceded only two. Indonesia's goal difference (+15) equals the sum of Vietnam (+9) and Thailand (+6). The three teams also had the same points, but Vietnam and Thailand scored higher than Indonesia (1-1 draw) when facing each other. Indonesia, meanwhile, has drawn 0-0 with Vietnam and Thailand in previous matches.
Seventy-six minutes after Khuat Van Khang equalised Vietnam 1-1 in the final group match against Thailand, Indonesian public opinion was unhappy to see both rivals almost pass the ball back and forth. After the game, representatives of both teams explained that their players were exhausted. Three Thai players were even lying on the court without colliding with anyone.
In previous U19 Southeast Asia, the points in the group stage are ranked in order based on the first criterion of the goal difference. For example, in Group B in 2017. Vietnam, Indonesia and Myanmar ended with nine points. Vietnam has the best confrontation results when considering three teams together, but still eliminated. At that time, Vietnam had a lower goal difference than Indonesia, and then considering confronted also lost to Myanmar.
This time, the tournament changed to review criteria. This criterion includes the score, goal difference and the number of goals in the match between the teams. Indonesia is equal to the point (2) and the goal difference (0), but eliminated because no goals in the net of the two teams equal to the point of Vietnam and Thailand.
At U23 Asia 2022 and Asian Cup 2019, AFC also prioritizes confrontation criteria. But at the 2018 World Cup or U20 World Cup 2019, FIFA prioritizes criteria for goals.
