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Indonesia’s hopes of staging the 2022 World Cup have been dealt a further blow after the country’s sports minister said it was more important to qualify for the tournament than to host it.

Bid leader Nurdin Halid admitted last month that Indonesia may be forced to pull out of the race to host the 2022 event if it could not get the government guarantees demanded by Fifa.

Now sports minister Andi Mallarangeng has told the Jakarta Post: “The only way to get Indonesia on to the world soccer stage is to raise our team’s performance. Only if we qualify for the finals will the rest of the world recognise us.

“We support the decision by the PSSI [Indonesian Football Association] during their recent congress in Bandung to intensify soccer development from very early on.

“For us, the most important thing is to focus on the game’s development and improve our performance. It would be a point of pride to qualify for the World Cup finals, wherever they are held, and a source of shame should we keep losing.”