On the occasion of FIFA Days in September, the Indonesian team is expected to have 2 friendly matches with the Kuwait and Lebanon teams to prepare for the final qualifying round of the 2026 Asian Cup.
The reason the Indonesian Football Association (PSSI) chose these two opponents for friendship is because both Kuwait and Lebanon have a West Asian style of play, similar to the playing style of Saudi Arabia and Iraq, the two opponents that the Indonesian team will face in their journey to hunt for tickets to the World Cup.
However, most recently, the Kuwait team suddenly withdrew, giving an unconvincing reason, even though this match will take place on September 5. In a recent interview with the Indonesian media, Mr. Erick Thohir, chairman of PSSI, expressed his disappointment.
"We really apologize to the fans for planning this a long time ago. Everything is finalized. We think this could be an act of sabotage, because organizing a quality friendly match is not easy.
According to research, not only withdrawing from the friendly match with Indonesia, the Kuwait team also withdraws from a tournament taking place in the UAE. Perhaps, this is an internal problem for the Kuwait team.
PSSI has sent a letter to Kuwait to request clarification of the issue, and has also reported the incident to the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), PSSI President Erick Thohir shared.
With an urgent time, PSSI will certainly not be able to manage to add a "blue team" to the Indonesian team in the upcoming FIFA Days.
This means that coach Patrick Kluivert and his team are left with only one match against Lebanon to experiment with tactics before the final qualifying round for the 2026 World Cup.
Indonesian press commented that this is a big loss, because Kuwait was considered the ideal "blue team" for Indonesia to get used to the playing style of the West Asian teams.
Also related to the preparation for the 2 matches in the final qualifying round of the 2026 World Cup between Indonesia and Saudi Arabia (October 9.10) and Iraq (October 12), according to the request of PSSI President Erick Thohir, AFC will not arrange any referees from any West Asian region to control the matches of the Indonesian team.
