After a two-year absence, Indonesia's national football league is "now set for a restart," according to Edo Karensa of the JAKARTA GLOBE. Dubbed the Indonesia Soccer Championship, the new league will "begin despite the country's continued suspension by world football governing body FIFA," the league's administrator said in a statement on Monday. League administrator GTS President & Dir Joko Driyono said that 18 football clubs "will participate in the top-level league, scheduled to run over 30 weeks." He said that the name of the league will "be revised next Monday after the administrator officially signed off on a new sponsorship deal with an undisclosed partner." Driyono: "The new league is not purely our initiative [...] it also involves the football clubs, our partners, the authorities and also the president, who is going to attend the opening match." FIFA suspended the country in May last year "in reaction to the government's meddling in the Indonesian Football Federation (PSSI)." The suspension meant that Indonesia's football teams "were not allowed to compete in regional and international competitions." The Ministry of Youth & Sports suspended the '15 Indonesian Super League season, "which was known as the QNB League, after it accused the PSSI of corruption, delayed payment of players' salaries, ignoring club-ownership rules and prolonged infighting" (JAKARTA GLOBE, 4/12).
