Friday, February 25, 2011

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.

9 comments:

Unknown said...

PSSI untuk waktu dekat ga bisa di arepin deh. slama menejemen dan orang2 nya masih kayak gitu.buang laut.hehehe

Unknown said...

Wisata Murah,
Saya setuju dengan anda, mudah2an keadaannya akan segera membaik.

Ria Tumimomor said...

these whole things disgusted me... All of them does not give a damn about this nation... All they think is about money, money, money...

Unknown said...

Hi Ria/The Dream Catcher,
Yes those guys who are running PSSI seemed to be after the money only.

r10 said...

sekarang pemilihan diulang, saya harap nurdin tidak mencalonkan diri lagi

dan anggta PSSI tidak mencalonkan Nurdin lagi

Unknown said...

R10,
Dengan dianulirnya putusan panitia seleksi pimpinan PSSI makan ada harapan bahwa keadaannya akan menjadi baik.

Yayack Faqih said...

tuntutan kita cuma satu, ganti rezim nurdin dan begundal2nya!

colson said...

It's bad, though not just typical PSSI. Athletes are formidable, sport is great, but it obviously in many countries tends to attract incompetent clowns and sometimes even corrupt thugs to manage it. It's puzzling.

I'm sorry for Indonesian foot-ballplayers and genuine supporters.

Unknown said...

@Yayack,
Keputusan komisi banding PSSI sepertinya akan mengarah pada
apa yang anda inginkan.
Terima kasih anda telah follow blog saya di Google Friend Connect. Saya segera follow balik.

@Colson,
Thank you for your sympathy.
PSSI's appeal committee has canceled the decision about Nurdin and Nirwan as the only candidates therefore giving opportunity for others.