By Antara

Copyright tempo

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta – Indonesian Minister of Youth and Sports Erick Thohir mentioned that the available funding for participation in the 2025 SEA Games in Thailand is currently only Rp10 billion. According to him, this funding will impact the number of athletes sent to the largest Southeast Asian sports event.”With the current available funding (for the 2025 SEA Games) of only Rp10 billion, it means we can only send 120 athletes,” said Erick Thohir to the media after a meeting with the Indonesian Olympic Committee (KOI) in Jakarta on Monday, September 22, 2025.The potential number of athletes to be sent to the SEA Games in December 2025 is much smaller compared to the average number of athletes in previous editions. Indonesia usually sends around 900 athletes. For each SEA Games, Indonesia needs an expenditure of approximately Rp45 billion to Rp65 billion for athlete participation.In response to the insufficient funding, Erick said he will soon meet with Minister of Finance Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa to request an increase in the budget. “I believe that the Minister of Finance also has the same love for national sports,” he said.He mentioned that the Ministry of Youth and Sports needs to evaluate itself to negotiate with other parties to obtain budget support. He said this step is part of the ministry’s transformation and reform. “I believe that the budget is flexible, but today I have to see the black and white that was produced from the leadership meeting yesterday,” he said.Reduction of Sports BranchesErick Thohir and the Indonesian Olympic Committee (KOI) discussed strategies for addressing the reduction of sports categories in the 2025 SEA Games. “Later, from 87 gold medals contested, it will be reduced to 41 gold medals. So, at best, we might be ranked fifth or sixth in the SEA Games,” he said.Thailand has reduced the number of sports categories and included those that are the host country’s strengths. Erick stated that the reduction of sports branches will impact Indonesia’s ranking in the SEA Games standings.Erick and the analyst team discussed future steps with the sports branch officials regarding the potential additional gold medals, along with Deputy Minister Taufik Hidayat and KOI Chair Raja Sapta Oktohari. This study will coincide with lobbying the Ministry of Finance for the athlete participation budget.”Because there are only two months left for the SEA Games preparation, I would like to request flexibility. We shouldn’t let our performance at the SEA Games drastically decline, which currently has an average ranking of three,” said Erick Thohir.Editor’s Choice: FIFA Chair Extends “Heartfelt Congratulations” to Erick Thohir on Ministerial PostClick here to get the latest news updates from Tempo on Google News