The Jakarta International Stadium (JIS) was worthy of hosting world football matches, including the World Cup final, Jakarta Deputy Governor Ahmad Riza Patria stated.
“The Jakarta International Stadium is capable of hosting the Champions League final and even the World Cup final,” Patria noted through his Instagram account @arizapatria on Friday.
The deputy governor later remarked that JIS was equipped with supporting facilities, such as a seating capacity of 82 thousand and a retractable roof.
In fact, several football stadiums, such as the Anfield stadium and Old Trafford stadium, did not have a retractable roof, he pointed out.
During his Eid holiday in England, Patria had visited several European football stadiums, including Anfield Stadium, the home for Liverpool FC, with 54,074 seats, and Manchester United’s stadium, Old Trafford, with a seating capacity of 76 thousand.
“We should be proud that JIS has a capacity of 82 thousand seats,” Patria noted.
The deputy governor also stated that football had become an industry in England. He remarked that the private sector’s involvement in sponsoring the football club in England should be taken into consideration to be explored in Indonesia’s football culture.
“We hope that the Jakarta Football Club, Persija, and other Indonesian clubs would be able to grow just like Liverpool, Manchester United, AC Milan, Bayer Munich, and others,” he stated.
He expressed optimism that Indonesian football players would be able to enter the international market with noteworthy fees. He believes that the potential is quite high since members of Indonesia’s young generation were able to enter the world’s best universities, such as Oxford, Stanford, Harvard, MIT, and Cambridge.
Patria remarked that the salaries of players, such as Mohamed Salah, had reached Rp3.7 billion per week and Cristiano Ronaldo, Rp7.1 billion per week.
“If Indonesian children are able to enter the best universities in the world, Indonesian children must also be able to play in clubs, such as Liverpool, Manchester United, Chelsea,” he concluded.
Source: Antara News