Indonesia’s “Green World Cup” 2022 Bid

When you look at the list of nations bidding to host World Cups 2018 and 2022, it’s very very easy to dismiss Indonesia. The nine other bids all have either superior football traditions or superior infrastructure or superior financial muscle. Or in most cases all three. There’s also the question of letting a team ranked 129th in the world qualify automatically. But the Indonesia bid has something other bids don’t: The potential to save the whole world. At least a little bit.
While the nine other bids are based on the idea that “we really really want it”, Indonesia has spotted the current corporate trend for environmentalism and gone for it. They’re proposing the “Green World Cup 2022″ in Indonesia.
Soccer Association of Indonesia (PSSI) chairman Nurdin Halid told the Jakarta Post earlier this month that “Our deforestation rate has contributed much to world pollution. By hosting the World Cup, we wish to build infrastructure and facilities that are environmentally friendly so we can give more to the planet.”
Sounds like an absolutely brilliant idea if you ask me. Not only does the “Green World Cup 2022″ idea make the Indonesia bid stand out, it also gives it the moral high ground and puts pressure on FIFA. If they ignore the Green World Cup and award 2022 (which is when Indonesia have said they’d prefer to host) to one of those other carbon-producing bids, then FIFA looks like it hates planet earth.
The downside is that it seems there are almost zero details available explaining exactly what would make Indonesia 2022 such an environmentally friendly tournament.

Maybe they’d follow Norwegian club Rosenborg’s lead and do it all on the basis of smart stadiums that don’t use excessive amounts of energy? Maybe the still to be built World Cup stadiums will be made entirely of recycled materials? Maybe they’ll demand that all players and fans walk to Indonesia for the tournament, to save all that jet fuel exhaust being pumped into the atmosphere?
It’s possible that all the details are in the official bid Indonesia sent to FIFA and just not yet available to the public. I genuinely hope so. But given the fact that the Indonesian 2022 bid website has a lot of “coming soon”s on it, and that both the above bid logos are from a Facebook group and not yet official (like these ones are), I suspect that there’s still a lot of work to be done.
It would be deeply depressing if the “Green World Cup 2022″ idea is just an empty marketing trick. There’s enough greenwashing (companies falsely promoting products as being environmentally friendly, because they know it sells well) around already.
But even if it’s just a gimmick, Indonesia 2022 is still the first bid to float the idea of a green World Cup. Green things have a tendency to grow if given enough care and attention, so maybe we’ll see a whole host of green bids for World Cup 2026.

Indonesia 2022 FIFA World Cup bid

The Indonesia 2022 FIFA World Cup bid was the first official bid from the
Football Association of Indonesia (PSSI) to host the FIFA World Cup. FIFA
rejected the bid for lack of government support on March 19, 2010.^[1] Indon
esia was one of four Asian countries bidding to bring the tournament to Asia
for a second time, the 2002 tournament having been played in Japan and So
uth Korea. Indonesia, under the name of the Dutch East Indies, had been the
first Asian nation to compete in the World Cup, when they participated in the
1938 event, and they lost to Hungary in the first round.^[2]

Indonesia's 2018–2022 World Cup Bid logo.

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[edit] Bid committee

The chairman of the bid committee was Ginandjar Kartasasmita, the chairman
of the Indonesian senate, and the vice chairman was Gita Wirjawan from Pert
amina, a national oil and gas company. The committee also included: Syarief
Bastaman, Joko Driyono, Hamka Kady, Fauzi Bowo, Hayono Isman, Nirwan
Dermawan Bakrie, and Josef Refo. ^[3]
The bid was launched at a time when there was pressure from Indonesian foo
tball fans to Nurdin Halid to step down from his position as the chairman of P
SSI. The bid itself was used by Jusuf Kalla in his campaign to gain support fo
r his Presidential candidacy in 2009, though his effort was unsuccessful.

[edit] Bid rejection

Indonesia was alone among the bidding nations in not having official govern
ment backing, although some support was offered in a 2009 interview by pre
vious Youth and Sports Minister, Adhyaksa Dault. On March 19 2010, FIFA
announced that Indonesia's bid had been rejected, because required documen
ts and guarantees had not been provided, as the government felt that the bid
would not gain popular support in the country.^[1]

Jalak Harupat Soreang Stadium

Capacity: 88,083

Capacity: 60,000

Capacity: 55,000

Capacity: 40,000