Football oh Football

All of my life I have never really love playing or watching football matches.
I played or watched football matches merely to have some good times with my friends who love football.

That was before our national football team played at the ASEAN football tournament i.e. the AFF-Suzuki Cup 2010 last December.

After that, I never missed any match played by our team, discussions about it in the media, and also discussed with friends about the said tournament.

By watching football I could get away from all the ugly news about what's been happening around us i.e Corruption, Injustice, Poverty, Unemployment, Dirty Politicians, et cetera et cetara.

And when our team loose, I didn't mind at all because they tried their best but the Malaysian team was better and deserve to be champion. Anyway, the AFF-Suzuki Cup tournament was a tournament among ASEAN countries, so the most important thing was to maintain the spirit of camaraderie.

This can be seen from the facts that not long after the tournament was over, Malaysian Striker Mohd Safee Sali was transferred to the club Pelita Jaya, and Philipine Strikers James and Phillips Younghusband were transferred to the club Jakarta 1928. 

What's disappointing for me was the management of football run by All Indonesian Football Association (PSSI) lead by Nurdin Halid since 2003, including several years when he was jailed for corruption, who proudly declared that he is a member of the Golkar Party and only obeyed his party boss Aburizal Bakrie.

Considering that PSSI is a sport organization  funded by the state, Nurdin's attitude has annoyed President SBY and his Democrat Party which is actually in coalition with the Golkar Party.

PSSI's failure to develop better football players and team during Nurdin's leadership has inspired the birth of the Indonesian Premier League (LPI) initiated by businessman/politician Arifin Panigoro. PSSI rejected LPI because they said they already have the Indonesian Super League (LSI). And based on Nurdin's lobby, the international football association FIFA refused to recognize LPI. This has made many people protest and demand for changes in PSSI and asked him to resign.

As Nurdin's office term in PSSI is about to end, he nominated himself and Nirwan Bakrie, brother of Aburizal Bakrie as candidates for the next Chairman and Vice Chairman of PSSI. They have successfully made the candidates qualification committee to dismiss nomination of Army Chief of Staff General George Toisutta and businessman/ politician Arifin Panigoro as candidates.

Anti-Nurdin protests were getting more wild every day, called for PSSI Revolution and took over PSSI office after our pre-Olimpic games team loose 1-3 against Turkmenistan a few days ago.

Considering the above, I felt that football in Indonesia has been contaminated by non-sports interests of those who are managing PSSI. I hope that PSSI would soon be managed by people who have never commited crime, free from non-sport interests and really want to dedicate themselves to develop football in Indonesia.
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Logo :  Courtesy of PSSI.