Bobotoh Jakarta

Football is the most interesting game in the world to watch. In Indonesia it is quite difficult to control this one sport because for the Indonesian people, football is the most fascinating sports game to watch. Missing the game would be a great pity. Football, besides a collective game that involve many people (11 people is also an organization) is also part of a system. Beside the players, there is also an organization that manages it.

Indonesian football is under an organization called PSSI. As the highest football organization, PSSI issues a law that regulates Indonesian football matters. As an organization, PSSI also is part of the Asia Football Confederation (AFC) in Asia and FIFA (Federation International de Football Association) as the world football organization. One of the rules implemented by PSSI is the Super League that differ from the previous leagues. Super League is carried out only with one region, unlike other leagues that involved two regions which was west and east regions. In addition it once involved three regions including the central region.

This was where a problem occurred for many clubs in the Super League. The classical problem is about funding, indeed very rational if many clubs are shouting with the policy. The high budget is usually used for accommodation during matching games. Imagine if for a game outside the island, they use air transportation, except if the game is held on the same island, they can use land transportation.

Indonesia is the largest archipelago country in Asia, with an area of approximately 1,919,440 Km2, compared to other countries that do not have as large area as Indonesia. Japan (377.835 Km2), Korea (98.480 Km2) and Thailand (514.000 Km2) cannot be compared with Indonesia. By infrastructure, the three other nations are more modern. To go from one city to another you can use land transportation like train or bus. While in Indonesia, with the largest area in Southeast Asia, you have to cross the sea to get to another island.

Looking at the geographical condition, ideally Indonesian league should use the old format that has been previously implemented, two or three regions. It is not necessary to force to implement a one region format if at the end it would burden the clubs to pay for accommodation and infrastructure. This is because Indonesia’s positition at the AFC is not strong enough so that Indonesia decided to implement the one region league format. If we do not implement this format, clubs under the Indonesian League cannot compete at the Asian Champion’s League. If not compete at the Asian’s Champion’s League, we cannot measure our success at a more higher level.

Furthermore, businesses in Indonesia have not lay a hand on football. Football has not been considered as a profit maker. Compared to English Premier League or Calcio Italia League where football has become a profitable industry, the club’s policy means profit and achievement. Meaning, there is a relationship between achievement and profit. The more achievement a club made, the more profit the management is making.

I think that however it is, football inIndonesia is part of the nation’s asset. Indonesia’s football can help increase Indonesia’s position in the world’s football. This can only happen if we manage to create a significant triumph in a higher event. It all started from the Indonesian League. The policy that should be undertaken is to make clubs under the league more independent and reconsidering the format that is more appropriate the the nation's geographical condition so that clubs would have no fund difficulties due to accommodation expenses.

By Iden Wildensyah