Will it be England? Or Brazil? Or will Italy retain its title? Most eyes will turn to South Africa next year for the 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup from June 11 to July 11. A total of 32 teams will fight it out for the chance to become world champion. The quadrennial event will undeniably be the most important sporting event of next year.
It is historical, too, as for the first time Africa has the chance to host the money-generating event, although Soccernomics authors Simon Kuper and Stefan Szymanski point out “all the predictions about the rise of Africa, that’s not likely. Income, population and experience. Africa is nowhere on the first two and it’s only one thing to go and hire a coach. Poverty stops them.”
Six teams from Africa — Algeria, Cameron, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria and host South Africa — have qualified for the World Cup, but their journey to make it into the final is still in doubt. Asia, meanwhile, be represented by Japan, South Korea, North Korea and Australia, might not be shining as in 2002 when co-host South Korea surprisingly reached the semifinals.
Soccer governing body FIFA believes the monthlong tournament will draw around 26 billion people viewers worldwide, the same number as the 2006 event in Germany. From the TV broadcast rights alone, FIFA hopes to reap US$2.7 billion.
Among those enjoying the widely televised matches will be Indonesians, whose enthusiasm matches that of the Azzuri fans or the Samba supporters, although the country’s national team has never made it to the World Cup.
Once the World Cup hype ends, Indonesia has to speed up its preparation to compete in the 16th Asian Games in Guangzhou, China, and the inaugural Olympic Youth Games in Singapore.
Dubbed the second-largest sporting event after the Olympic Games, the Nov. 11-27 Asian Games is expected to be another success for host China after the 2008 Beijing Olympics. About 14,000 participants from 45 countries will gather in Guangzhou to compete in 42 sports.
As host China looks to retain the overall championship before a home crowd, and with the Chinese government promoting the event since last month, with a year to go, Indonesia remains far from ready to improve on its results at the 2006 Doha Asian Games.
With only 11 months to go, the National Sports Council (KONI) and the State Youth and Sports Affairs Ministry were still busy with the Vientiane Southeast Asian (SEA) Games from Dec. 9-18.
While other countries in the region are looking forward to the 2012 London Olympics, Indonesia is moving backward by “only” seeking third place at the SEA Games.
In Vientiane, Indonesian sprinter Suryo Agung Wibowo shattered his own record in the 100-meter dash, snatching the gold medal in the process. Mixed doubles badminton player Nova Widianto remains the country’s backbone for winning the men’s team gold, having already bagged a silver medal at the Olympics and two world championships. Eko Yuli Irawan set new records in the 56-kilogram division of the men’s weightlifting to take the SEA Games gold, following from his 2008 Olympics bronze.
Their achievements, indeed, make us proud.
However, Indonesia’s pride was tarnished with a humiliating performance by our national soccer team, which lost all three of its group matches. Aiming to host the 2022 World Cup, our team flopped in even the smallest regional competition. The defeats were immediately slammed by soccer fans on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, as they were more than disappointed with such poor results.
KONI and sports ministry need to end their rift over the so-called Top-Tier Athletic Program (PAL). The program was initiated by then Minister Adhyaksa Dault in a bid to groom athletes for international level — a program previously run by and the sole responsibility of KONI for decades.
Adhyaksa’s successor, Andi Alfian Mallarangeng, however, held talks with KONI chairwoman Rita Subowo on the issue and both leaders have since agreed to maintain and develop the program in a bid to further develop sports. The two also agreed that the ministry should create a sports blueprint for athletes to reach peak performance, and that the blueprint would be formulated at a national summit.
Indonesian sports guru Mangombar Ferdinand Siregar urged Rita and Andi to follow up on recommendations from the National Commission on Sports and Physical Education, which he chairs.
The commission issued seven recommendations — including drafting a national strategy on sports development, empowering society, improving PE teachers’ competence and improving the recruitment system for the national long-term training program — during its convention in Bandung last year.
The commission also recommends stakeholders focus on the development of eight sports — track-and-field, swimming, gymnastics, soccer, badminton, basketball, volleyball and pencak silat — including at school level. The focus on the first three – track and field, swimming and gymnastics — was because they offered the most medals in sporting events from national competitions all the way to the Olympics.
With the Asian Games as the next target, Minister Andi is hoping his first year in his new post – after serving as presidential spokesman in Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s first term – will be more prominent with success after success. Andi expects his athletes to improve on their ranking at the quadrennial event. Indonesia finished 22nd at the 2006 Doha Games – sixth among Southeast Asian countries.
KONI and the sports ministry have a lot of work left to do to jack up Indonesia’s poor performance in the sporting arenas. Otherwise we will remain in the stadium as spectators, wearing other countries’ uniforms and chanting the names of “Ronaldo”, “Kaka” or “Messi” instead of “Bambang” or “Ponaryo”.
The author is a staff writer at The Jakarta Post.
