JAKARTA - Indonesia's football association (PSSI) elected its new head on Saturday to avoid sanctions from world governing body FIFA, local media reported.

Djohar Arifin Husin will be the next chief of PSSI after he defeated the other candidates in two rounds of voting, the Jakarta Post newspaper reported.

The PSSI had been told it must hold elections or face suspension by the game's governing body, which would have jeopardised Indonesia's participation in the second round of 2014 World Cup Asian qualifying later this month.

Husin, a former secretary general of the Indonesian sports committee, polled 61 votes and defeated his nearest opponent by 30 votes in Saturday’s elections, the report said.

FIFA had appointed a normalisation committee earlier this year to organise the election after opponents of former chairman Nurdin Halid, who was jailed in 2007 for misusing funds but continued to run the PSSI from his cell, forced their way into PSSI elections. - Reuters