Bali Governor Wayan Koster then said he would refuse to host the Israeli team on the Hindu-majority island, as the organisers had planned. Koster cited Indonesia’s foreign policy amid the concerns raised about the event’s security.

The debate was ratcheted up further as Central Java Governor Ganjar Pranowo, the frontrunner for next year’s presidential election, also called for the Israeli team to be excluded from the tournament.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo attempted to salvage the cup, urging that sport and politics should not be mixed. Erick Thohir, one of his ministers and the new head of the PSSI, was dispatched to Doha to meet FIFA president Gianni Infantino.

FIFA, however, decided the domestic furore over Israel had made a tournament in Indonesia untenable. Argentina has been suggested in Indonesian media as a possible alternative host.

“Indonesia is a FIFA member, so for any international soccer matters, we have to abide by the rules,” said Thohir, a businessman who formerly owned Italian football giant Inter Milan.

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“I ask all football lovers to keep their heads held high over this tough decision by FIFA.”

One Indonesian player who was due to play in the tournament blamed politicians for the setback.

“We sacrificed our time, thoughts, sweat and even blood. But it suddenly failed due to your political reasons,” striker Rabbani Tasnim Siddiq said on Instagram.

The head of an Indonesian fans’ association, Ignatius Indro, said the loss of hosting rights was a “failure” for the country.

Koster released a statement late Thursday, saying he had stood against Israel playing in Bali in acknowledgement of Indonesia’s constitution, which states that all colonialism must be abolished. He also echoed the argument of his party, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP), whose general secretary accused FIFA of double standards by suspending Russian teams after Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

“I invite the people of Bali to pray together so that FIFA is moved his heart to remain fair by eliminating Team Israel from the World Championships FIFA U-20, the same as [its] attitude when eliminating the Russian team [from the 2022 World Cup in Qatar],” he said.

Koster also said the presence of the Israeli team could have created a security risk for the Balinese people and the Israelis themselves.

“As governor of Bali, I do not tolerate potential disturbances to the security and safety of the people of Bali, which will further impact the hard work of all parties so far, to restore tourism and the economy of Bali, so that they can only recover and get back on their feet after the COVID-19 pandemic,” he said.

Six venues were to hold matches, including Bali, where the draw was also to be staged, but it wasn’t only the subject of where Israel might play that proved problematic.

There was also the possibility that the team might be drawn in the same group as Indonesia, which automatically qualified as hosts, and the two would have to play against each other, further elevating tensions.

Losing the World Cup event is a significant setback. Indonesian football has been plagued by troubles including corruption, match fixing and violence between supporters, all of which has contributed to it being a perennial under-achiever considering its size and zest for the sport.

It was only last October that 135 people died at a top-division league game between Arema FC and Persebaya Surabaya in Malang, most suffocating in a stampede towards the exit gates after police fired tear gas inside the packed stadium.

The PSSI said this week that losing hosting rights would harm Indonesian football teams’ chances of taking part in other FIFA tournaments, while the economic losses would amount to “trillions of rupiah”.