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Domestic dualism is destroying RI soccer
The shambles of Indonesia’s domestic soccer scene is destroying what little prestige the national team has left, if indeed it had any left at all following a disastrous World Cup qualifying campaign
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he shambles of Indonesia’s domestic soccer scene is destroying what little prestige the national team has left, if indeed it had any left at all following a disastrous World Cup qualifying campaign.
The recent 10-0 capitulation to Bahrain, which was the last of Indonesia’s six FIFA World Cup qualifying matches, has illuminated the linkage between a chaotic league system that currently has two top tier leagues, and the now almost comedic performances of the national team.
You would probably need a week to fully explain the intricacies of how Indonesian soccer has gone from average to bad to worse.
The Indonesian Soccer Association (PSSI) currently recognizes the Indonesian Premier League (LPI) as Indonesia’s official league, but a breakaway league, known as the Indonesian Super League (ISL) is also in operation.
The two leagues disagree over the number of clubs that should feature in Indonesia’s top soccer tier. Tellingly, there are also business disagreements.
Clubs in the rebel league point to how the company running the LPI, PT Liga Prima Indonesia Sportindo (LPIS), has changed the rules so that the PSSI now receives a 70 percent share of the league’s profits, while clubs receive 30 percent.
Previously, the rebel clubs argue, only 1 percent was designated to the PSSI, with 99 percent offered to clubs.
The months-long standoff is now having a real impact on the pitch as well as in the pockets of those who run the domestic game.
In a move probably designed to heap more pressure on those players featuring in the rebel league, the PSSI announced that it would now employ a FIFA regulation that stipulated that only players turning out for clubs playing in officially recognized leagues would be eligible for selection for the national squad.
The move was probably a power play of sorts, designed to ratchet up the pressure on rebel clubs by sidelining their players. But it looks to have been only partly successful.
PSSI bosses must have hoped that the move of promising Indonesian Under-23 full back Diego Michiels from ISL club Pelita Jaya to LPI club Persija Jakarta was the start of a long stream of players switching league allegiances. But after Diego, that stream came to an abrupt halt.
As a result, PSSI bosses have got exactly what they asked for. They have sidelined the players of the ISL, but instead of moving leagues, by and large those players have opted to stay put in the rebel league, and therein have become ineligible for national team selection.
With the horror show against Bahrain, the PSSI’s aggressive placing of politics above soccer has come back to haunt it.
Take a look at how badly the Indonesian national team has been weakened because of the PSSI’s decision to sideline players in the ISL.
According to the FIFA team sheet, in the game against Bahrain, at least nine players were capped for the first time. The highest capped player in the team was 23-year-old Irfan Bachdim with 13 caps.
So clearly this was a team with largely no experience of international soccer that was thrown into the back end of a FIFA World Cup qualifying campaign — probably the highest level of soccer the national team ever reaches.
Now take a look at those players currently playing the ISL who could have helped the team but yet were banned due to the PSSI ruling: Boaz Solossa (forward for Persipura FC, 25-year-old, 23 caps, 6 goals); M. Ilham (winger for Persib Bandung, 31-year-old, 20 caps, 2 goals); Maman Abdurahman (defender for Perisib Bandung, 29-year-old, 27 caps); Christian Gonzales (striker for Persisam Putra Samarinda, 35-year-old, 19 caps, 11 goals); Firman Utina (midfielder for Sriwijaya FC, 30-year-old, 53 caps, 5 goals); Muhammad Ridwan (midfielder for Sriwijaya FC, 31-year-old, 32 caps, 4 goals): and Bambang Pamungkas (striker for Persija Jakarta, 31-year-old, 83 caps, 37 goals).
There’s a wealth of experience here, and a bit of talent too. And all this of course is forgetting the likes of rising stars such as Titus Bonai and Patrich Wanggai, who are as yet uncapped at senior level but
who would have certainly thrived in a squad with older, more experienced players.
It’s important to note of course that these players, while significant upgrades on the current squad, would not have turned around an already abysmal World Cup qualifying campaign that saw six losses out of six matches, to which many of them contributed. But at least they would have saved the country from the despair of its biggest ever international soccer defeat.
If anything, one hopes that this is the catalyst for change in the domestic soccer scene. After a long period of silence on the matter, now national political figures are beginning to weigh into the debate with their own criticisms.
President Susilo Bambang Yu-dhoyono was apparently “deeply concerned” by the humiliation and the Youth and Sports Ministry has now postponed funding of the national soccer team until the domestic dualism is settled once and for all.
As we saw during the recent Under-23 SEA Games soccer tournament, there is a promising crop of young and determined players coming through.
But instead of throwing them all into the mix together and hoping for the best, their international development needs to take place alongside the more experienced players, who while not the best and in the twilight of careers, must surely still have something positive to offer the next generation.
All focus now turns to how quickly the two leagues can be reconciled. FIFA have apparently ordered PSSI to sort out the mess before March 20.
In the meantime, this soccer mad nation is being cruelly forced to survey the wreckage of a season that will surely be consigned to the history books with a great deal of pleasure.
The writer is a freelance journalist based in Jakarta. More of his writings can be found at markwilsonjournal.com
