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Overused plot will only kill Indonesian soccer at every rebirth
Indonesia, the biggest country in the region, has never won the AFF Cup tournament since its inception in 1996, as compared with Thailand (7 times), Singapore (4 times), Vietnam (twice) and Malaysia (once).
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Saddil Ramdani (center) of Indonesia kicks the ball during the AFF Mitsubishi Electric Cup 2022 football match against Philippines at Rizal Memorial Stadium in Manila on Jan. 2, 2023.
(AFP/Jam Sta Rosa)
O
ne of many fundamental elements in sports is strong motivation to victory, which under good strategies and measures will lead to glory.
Such a positivity, unfortunately, is not represented in the Indonesian soccer—with endless mismanagement and weak leadership in its federation, which supposes to be the core in forming a winning team, at least in the region.
As if to cap the unimpressive run of the Soccer Association of Indonesia (PSSI) under outgoing chief Mochammad “Iwan Bule” Iriawan, a retired police general, a deadly stampede in Kanjuruhan Stadium in Malang, East Java on Oct. 1, 2022 brought the Indonesian soccer to disrepute. No less than 135 people were killed as a result of the police’s illegal use of tear gas in crowd control after the Liga 1 premier league soccer match between archrivals Arema FC and Persebaya Surabaya.
The magnitude of the tragedy, one of the world’s deadliest, was so enormous that President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo insisted that the mess was cleaned by meeting world soccer body FIFA president Gianni Infantino in person when the latter visited Jakarta.
Prior to that, Jokowi even assigned State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) Minister Erick Thohir, former president of Italian top flight Inter Milan, to confirm that the lobbies went well, resulting in FIFA imposing no sanction to Indonesia over the stadium incident.
We’re “lucky” enough to keep hosting the upcoming FIFA Under-20 World Cup championship, despite the Kanjuruhan horror.
Indonesian soccer, already suffered from COVID-19 restrictions, went deeper in the gutter with unstable domestic competitions over the past few years.
