Indonesia was advised to quit the Southeast Asian Football Confederation
In the 113th minute of the Southeast Asian U23 final on August 26, defenders Haykal Alhafiz and Hong Phuc rushed to compete for the ball on the edge. Hong Phuc broke the ball, then jumped to avoid when the opponent raised his leg. But while falling, the Vietnamese defender swung his arm back and hit Haykal in the face. The Indonesian player was in pain, had to ask a doctor to take care of him and go out to rest for a while before returning to play again.
Japanese referee Hiroki Kasahara did not penalize Hong Phuc's behavior, but many viewers thought that the 20-year-old defender deliberately played bad. Mr. Qosasi is the president of Madura United - the club contributed a player to Indonesia to attend the tournament. After the match, he wrote on Instagram: "If Hong Phuc is not fined by AFF, Indonesia needs to speak up and consider stopping participating in Southeast Asian tournaments. After hitting Haykal in the face, he should have come to apologize. and show respect."
The Indonesians were also angry with Hong Phuc's behavior, so they went to the defender's Instagram account to insult. Hong Phuc's latest photo has up to 35,000 comments from Indonesian accounts, making his account now no longer found on social networks.
A few minutes after the situation, Haykal also jumped into the chain to kick striker Nguyen Dang Duong's foot to retaliate. This time the referee blew a penalty and gave Haykal a yellow card. Mr. Kasahara had to draw eight yellow cards in this match, three for Vietnam and five for Indonesia.
The final also had many situations where players played bad, then retaliated against each other, but no goals were scored. The two teams had to take a penalty shootout, and the result was decided in the sixth set, when goalkeeper Ernando Ari's kick was ejected by his colleague Quan Van Chuan. Then, 18-year-old midfielder Thai Ba Dat shot in to seal a 6-5 victory, helping Vietnam become the first team to defend the Southeast Asian U23 championship.
Indonesia also considered quitting AFF, at the AFF U19 tournament in Jakarta in July 2022. The reason is that they are dissatisfied with the way Vietnam and Thailand played without sportsmanship in the last round of the group stage, to draw and lead each other to the semi-finals while the host was eliminated. The Indonesian Football Federation then also complained to the AFF, even considering the possibility of quitting Southeast Asian football to become a member of the East Asian Football Federation (EAFF).
