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War within PSSI
History shows that any change of guard within the PSSI in the last three decades rarely resulted in better performances from the national soccer team, even at the Southeast Asian level.
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Blow the whistle: Protesters claiming to be Indonesian soccer supporters march to the venue of the Indonesian Soccer Association (PSSI) congress in Nusa Dua, Bali, on Monday. They threw their support behind a taskforce assigned to eradicate corruption in the administration of soccer in the country. (The Jakarta Post/Zul Trio Anggono)
T
he resignation of Edy Rahmayadi after only two years at the helm of the Soccer Association of Indonesia (PSSI) on Sunday marked another predicament beleaguering the country’s soccer authority. Questions linger, however, whether the succession would help the PSSI emerge from the crisis or instead plunge it into an abyss.
History shows that any change of guard within the PSSI in the last three decades rarely resulted in better performances from the national soccer team, even at the Southeast Asian level. Winning the Southeast Asian Games gold medal or the ASEAN Cup was the target of all the PSSI chairmen who were in office after 1991, including Edy, but the target has always been missed.
Simply put, the PSSI as the governing body of Indonesia’s most popular sport has failed to deliver, no matter who has lead the organization. There have been bureaucrats, Indonesian Army generals and businessmen-cum-politicians, but the country has continued to struggle for respect in regional, let alone global, soccer competitions.
Indonesia, with a population of 255 million people, has never fallen short of human resources in soccer. Its abundance of talent helped it win the ASEAN Football Federation U-19 in 2013 and U-16 in 2018, a feat that has eluded the senior team. The last international accolade Indonesia won came in 1991 when it beat archrival Malaysia for the Southeast Asian Games soccer gold medal.
Many say the PSSI has been facing an acute problem of mismanagement, particularly in transforming and developing the huge potential of the millions of soccer talents across the sprawling archipelago into a team that can have a say in international competitions. There have been initiatives, breakthroughs or shortcuts to prop up the national team’s performance, but the results have failed to impress.
Indonesia’s ranking has stagnated at 159 according to world soccer body FIFA as of December 2018. The largest Southeast Asian economy thus trails smaller ASEAN neighbors Vietnam, the Philippines, Thailand and Myanmar. Vietnam tops the standings in Southeast Asia, joins the world top 100 and may climb higher after reaching the final eight of the Asian Cup now underway in Doha.
Strong leadership is seen as another challenge for the PSSI, as evident in the ongoing crackdown on match fixing. For so many years PSSI leaders have failed to take radical measures against the practices, which have undermined not only the value of sportsmanship but also the PSSI’s credibility. Only after the police stepped in and made a number of arrests did the PSSI display full commitment to the fight against match fixing.
The public is wondering how far the police would go, but expects those responsible for the practice, either inside or outside the PSSI, to face justice. There should be no reprieve for people who have dragged Indonesian soccer into decades-long lethargy.
When the dust settles, the PSSI should return to its main business of developing national soccer. It would require a person of extraordinary quality and passion to lead the PSSI. The war is surely not yet over for the PSSI.
