Try and mention one achievement by our national soccer team that we can be proud of. The team's performance just keeps getting worse. It has happened most drastically within the last decade. The public's growing apathy and distaste for Indonesian soccer is not just because of the national team's poor performance, but also the brutality of soccer fans who always engage in brawls and vandalism in every match. It's ironic, though, that even with soccer as the most popular sport in Indonesian, the game has become something we avoid talk about.
We're willing to stay up from midnight to dawn to watch UEFA Champions League games or the English Premier League, and don't care about our bleary-eyed appearance in the office a few hours later. But we avoid like the plague going anywhere near local stadiums hosting local league games. Last week I was forwarded an email warning of fan violence and suggesting I steer clear of Senayan, where Persija Jakarta hosted Persib Bandung. Ridiculous! Why has soccer become something ominous today?
Are we any less patriotic if we don't tune in to broadcasts of local matches? Or if we're crazier about the Italian Serie A and Spanish Primera Liga than the Indonesian league? Or if we're prouder of wearing the jerseys of Liverpool, Manchester United, Real Madrid, Bayern Munchen, Internazionale and AC Milan more than those of Persebaya, Persija or Persib?
We have a population of more than 200 million, yet no one here can kick a ball correctly. Look how we were embarrassed 2-0 by Laos at the Southeast Asian Games last year. And we failed to qualify for the 2011 Asian Cup for the first time since 1996. Our bid to host the 2022 World Cup was dropped by FIFA because we came up short on the requirements and government backing. And because we were dithering over whether we could really invest billions of dollars to build new stadiums and upgrade existing ones to provide the minimum 10 venues to host the 32-team World Cup.
Indonesia should be ashamed that its national team is ranked 138th worldwide, according to the FIFA list released on March 31, 2010 - far below prominent soccer teams from Africa such as Cameroon (20), Nigeria (22) and the Ivory Coast (25). We're lower than below Bosnia-Herzegovina (47) and Iraq (ranked 81) - war-torn countries that have somehow managed to build up successful teams from the ashes of conflict.
It's so easy for us to name a high-profile scandal, but so hard to name even one soccer player or achievement of which we can be proud. And those bloated officials over at the Indonesian Soccer Association (PSSI) never see it as a failure on their parts. See how it works?In a radio interview Thursday morning, Sinyo Aliandoe, a former soccer player and national team coach, said the root cause of the decline in our performance was the PSSI itself. Therefore, chairman Nurdin Halid must resign from the PSSI. Only in Indonesia can you find a top sports administrator running things from jail. The man is a convicted criminal, and his presence in the PSSI violates FIFA regulations. When asked if our soccer team still had any hope of retaking past glory, Sinyo said that could only happen if Nurdin was kicked the hell out.
Perhaps the PSSI should have a chairman like Hendri Mulyadi. Remember him? He was the fan that ran out onto the pitch in a game against Qatar and tried to score, frustrated at the team's complete uselessness. I believe our diehard soccer supporters know him better than they do that criminal Nurdin.
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Serpong, 31 March 2010
Titus J.
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