Interview with Faridhian Anshari - Lecturer of Media Studies and Researcher on Football & Social Science
"Indonesian football is so complicated and it is hard to find the solutions."
Indonesia consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Sulawesi, Java, and parts of Borneo and New Guinea and has a huge population of over 273 million people. One of the key things which shapes and unites this vast and ever-evolving nation is …football.
Indonesia are the proverbial sleeping giants of the world game with huge numbers of people in the archipelago who live and breathe the beautiful game 24/7.
Despite all the love and passion, Indonesia have not fulfilled their vast potential on the global stage. Their sole World Cup appearance was as the 'Dutch East Indies' in the 1938 World Cup.
In the past, since playing as a fully fledged independent nation, they have only managed four group stage appearances in the AFC Asian Cup, made the Olympic finals in 1956 and achieved a bronze medal at the 1958 Asian Games.
The modern version of the national team have not fared well either as the 'Timnas' (The National Team), have contested the AFF Championship final match on six occasions though have never won the tournament.
The past few years have been testing for the Indonesian Football Association as they themselves were suspended by the world-governing body, FIFA. The suspension came about due to government interference in the Southeast Asian country's national league in 2015.
A newly launched new Indonesian Super League season was suspended after only two rounds as league officials tried to negotiate a deal with the government to allow two widely supported title contenders to participate after issues arose over their financial ownership. This was not resolved and so FIFA had to take action as an example to other countries.
A FIFA ban prevented Indonesia from participating in the joint qualifying tournament for the 2018 World Cup and 2019 Asian Cup. This of course meant lost time and experience for the nation's vast pool of talented players.
FIFA often takes a hard-line view of governments becoming involved and playing politics in the operations of local football associations and this proved to be the case for Indonesia.
On the upside, Indonesian fans are still football mad and huge segments of society continually live and breathe the beautiful game. The Indonesian football authorities have learnt the harsh lessons of their recent international ban.
Indonesia are now back on the global stage and recently reaching the final of the AFF finals (despite losing again this time to Thailand) is a step in the right direction.
Indonesia have tried to restructure domestic football and took pertinent steps towards top-flight professional football from the 2008-09 season onwards.
For such a vast and populous nation, Indonesia have also underachieved in the Asian continental competitions. Steps have been taken to help Indonesia fulfil their underlying potential.
The last rebranding occurred with the launch of professional Liga 1 which started in 2017 with much fanfare and huge crowds attending most domestic games.
In 2017, Liga 1 was launched, with new sponsors and ground-breaking TV deals, to truly professionalize the domestic league and rebrand the league and present a new era after years and years of scandals.
On the continental front, Indonesian teams, despite their huge fan support and revenue have not fared well through the years mainly due to several administrative issues.
For example, in 2018 saw champions Bhayangkara and third place finishers PSM Makassar fail to obtain an AFC license, so it was up to league runners up Bali United and fourth place finishers Persija Jakarta to represent Indonesian clubs.
The latest news is that the AFF Under 23 reigning champions, Indonesia, had to withdraw from the tournament in Cambodia, as amongst the 29 players who received call-ups seven test positive for COVID-19 and three suffer from injuries.
Both the national team and the domestic clubs should all be punching above their weight yet have not found the correct formula for success.
In an exclusive interview, Faridhian Anshari, a Lecturer of Media Studies + a Researcher on Football & Social Science, from Indonesia, gave his expert opinion on the history of Indonesian football and the current state of the game.
How is the professional football league in Indonesia set up? Is there a large gap in standards between Liga 1 and Liga 2?"
"First, you are asking about the gap between the professional league in Indonesia's football. Based on the data, that also shown on the PSSI website as the federation of Indonesian football (pssi.org) (you can click: Kompetisi), here we have three levels of the professional league, that divided into LIGA 1, LIGA 2, and LIGA 3. Of course, there is a gap between the leagues. LIGA 1 always reaches more attention from the public as viewers and sponsorship during the league process. The main sponsor is BRI as we know the national bank and one of the biggest banks in Indonesia.
In comparison, in LIGA 2 or the second level of competition, they also had sponsors: BRITAMA, which is still in one network with BRI (Bank Rakyat Indonesia). But the difference is in this season 2021/2022, Liga 2 reaches more attention from the public because some clubs are bought and owned by celebrities and also there is one club that is owned by Kaesang Pangarep as known as the youngest son of our president, Joko Widodo.
For the results, three clubs won the play-off and were entitled to enter the LIGA 1 for next season, and two from the three clubs are owned by celebrities and the president's son. So, people here are saying that money can buy anything to reach the first competition. If you asked about the gap between the three leagues, I can give you the number of contestants.
In LIGA 1 there are only 18 clubs, LIGA 2 has 24 clubs that went to play off having three clubs to level up. For Liga 3, they had 64 clubs that came from 31 provinces, and all matches were held in their regional areas. The biggest gap between LIGA 1, 2, and LIGA 3 is there is no official sponsorship for LIGA 3. So, you can imagine that there is no attention or media coverage about this league. Somehow, people say that this is the place for playing 'dirty' like score setting or football gambling things."
Indonesian fans are so passionate - Why does this passion come from? Is it regional pride?
"This is a tricky question and the answer may expand into the social context. Indonesia is one of the most populous countries in the world, which means that there are a lot of people here. Some people need to have their own identities to become different from each other socially. One of the identities that can easily reach is becoming the supporters of their local football clubs, this condition is also supported by the number of cities that usually have their clubs that relate with the fact that football has always become the most popular sport in Indonesia, followed by badminton and basketball.
So, if the question is about the root of passionate feeling, your guess about local pride is right, but that local pride is also supported by the fact that people here want to have their own identity. Indonesians are very proud of their local teams or national teams; people are not ashamed of using their club's jersey when they are going to the public. They believe that becoming a football supporter is one of the coolest identities that they can reach and feel different from others, and here we can see that football become one of many elements that can create a subculture for socials."
Indonesia actually played in the 1938 World Cup as the Dutch East Indies, are these results and appearance in the World Cup recognised by Indonesian fans today?
"The next question is related to history, and it is nice to answer it. FIFA on their official website already cover this story about Indonesia with another name (The Dutch East Indies) and note it was the first Asian country to join the World Cup in 1938 (fifa.com/tournaments/mens/worldcup/1938france).
(Readers can see a video of Indonesia's participation on YouTube here)
This history led to the condition of Indonesian football these days. The history as one of the countries that ever join the World Cup (besides with another name), still became the greatest story in Indonesian football history that was ever told to each other.
Every national day celebration, this kind of story is always written in the media and shared with the young fans or supporters. But the problem that comes from 'great' history that does not 100% represent Indonesia as a country because we declared independence in 1945, seven years after the World Cup, is the expectation and hope from the public and supporters that always voice out the possibilities of a 'comeback' to participate in the World Cup again.
Besides, the fact is Indonesian football is very left behind in Asia, so there is only a small chance of joining the World Cup. Some commentators or older people that still observe the condition of Indonesian football always say that this history creates false hope for the young generation. People need to analyze the history first, by knowing the real fact that Indonesia is just a part of the country that became a participant in that World Cup."
For such a vast nation of football lovers, how come Indonesian have under-performed so far on the International stage. For Example, AFF runners-up on 5 times and have not qualified for the Mens Asian Cup since 2007? (Which they hosted)
"I believe the fourth question is the hardest and tricky one to answer. Regarding Indonesia national teams' performance in football, we can say that the performance is very bad. Like you said in the Men's Asian Cup, there is no new achievement since 2007. Especially in the World Cup 2022 Qualifications, Indonesia reaches the bottom of groups and always loses to Malaysia as the biggest rival in Southeast Asia. It is a shameful reality here.
Not only that, in the regional competition AFF Cup, we have reached the final five times, but again in the last competition, we lost to Thailand and were always satisfied as runner up. If you ask the problem about this condition? A lot of commentators and researchers in the media show a lot of data that still cannot explain the root of these problems. But for me, as a researcher and football lover, I believe this problem can be traced from the management system that is run by the federation. For example, there are no right and fast decisions about the condition when a lot of football players who played in LIGA 1 got Covid. When the decision came slowly, the case became bigger and ended in delaying the league. Or another case that always became one of the biggest problems in Indonesian football: match score fixing.
Until this day, there is no clear solution to this problem. Somehow, we still can hear that little clubs which play in the lower league can fix the score to win the match. Other problems also came from the way of thinking from people in the federation or the public itself. The statement that naturalization players (players who change their nations) is better than local players. So, the federation will always try to contact and change players' nations for an instant performance or achievement. There are a lot of problems inside Indonesian football, and it is so complicated, it is hard to find the solutions."
Who owns and finances a majority of clubs like Persib Bandung and Persipura Jayapura?
"For the next question, about the owner and actors who finance the majority of football clubs in Indonesia. The answer can be broad, depending on business or regulation points of view. As the regulation from the Federation (PSSI) said and written, the football clubs that represent the local city or province cannot be supported by the local government. Because the government will use the financial plan that is destined for another subject like public welfare and other important subjects, just for the football clubs. The government knows this part because the supporters of football clubs are always and also known as the biggest voters for them. So, in some cases like many big clubs here (I don't want to say the name, because it still needs deeper research), the finances coming from sponsorship are also related to the local or national government.
In some cases, the sponsorship came from a big company that was established in the local area, so they feel and need to support the local clubs by giving them money from their financial plan or their Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR) agenda. However, from the business point of view like I wrote before, nowadays there are new phenomena that nation public figures try to buy or acquisitions and old club.
The example is Raffi Ahmad as one of the famous Artists in Indonesia (you can google it) buy a club and change the name to his own companies 'name: RANS CILEGON FC, and suddenly this club can qualify from LIGA 2 and will join the first league next season. The Public said that these phenomena of public figures buying football clubs just for fun will not be longer than three years because later they will know how difficult it is to run a football club in Indonesia that still has a huge problem and unfinished business inside the governance and management."
How have Indonesian clubs fared in the Asian Champions league?
"This question is unique because rarely do people ask this kind of question about Indonesia's chance and punishment in the Asian Champions League.
History wrote that the greatest achievement from Indonesian football clubs in Asian Football Club Competition is Persipura FC that became a semifinalist in the AFC Cup in 2014. The AFC Cup is different from Asian Champions League, which is more famous and reputable.
But the problem in Indonesia is not always that the winner of the league can participate in the Champions League because the regulation contains some problems like licenses or the quality and capacities of the stadium that will hold the match. So, many winners were out of qualification and replaced by other clubs that have different qualities.
About the supporters, whether it's the club's supporters who appear in the Champions League or other football club's supporters who will always support another club who represent on the outside, they will not have a high expectation for the performance or achievement of the clubs that play in Champions League.
I believe this happens because there is no good history of great achievement and participation from Indonesian clubs in the Champions League. But the case can be different if there is a regional competition just for football clubs in Southeast Asia. I think the supporters will have high expectations about the club's achievement in winning the competition. The supporters here have more pride only when playing with countries or clubs that come from Southeast Asia."
Has Indonesian recovered from their FIFA ban and how is head coach, Shin Tae-yong, doing?
"The last question is about the condition after the recovery from FIFA's punishment and the progress from Shin Tae-Yong (STY). The punishment from FIFA in 2015 until 2016, created another atmosphere in the Indonesian football area and led to a new perspective inside the supporters and fans. The new atmosphere that always survives until this saying is there is no belief for the PSSI as the federation. The public and supporters believe that people who want to join the PSSI and promise to help Indonesia's achievement are liars and never complete their promise.
The banned issue also started from the management inside the federation that created a dualism on the competition organizing. The wound from 2015, still embedded inside supporters' minds, which led to a lower expectation for Indonesia's participation in the football competition, well it's leveled in club or nation. However, about STY, the public loves him. He made great progress by playing young players in the AFF Cup this year.
The supporters also said that they believe in the process which is run and developed by STY's coaching team. Regardless of the loss in the AFF final, the quality of players until the tactics shows some different way than before and it led to great progress. So, people here hope STY can stay longer and bring Indonesia to another level in football."
Thank you!
References
factsofindonesia.com/football-teams-in-indonesia
Faridhian Anshari
Lecturer of Media Studies
Researcher on Football & Social Science
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