Lulled to Sleep by National Team Euphoria, Indonesian Football is Not Okay

In the last three days, supporter riots have resurfaced in Indonesia's professional competitions, BRI Liga 1 and Pegadaian Liga 2. The anarchistic actions and vandalism of supporters are inseparable from the lack of fundamental improvements carried out by PSSI, except for enhancing the national team with naturalized players.

Since the mass media began extensively discussing supporter riots in the 1970s, the passage of time over five decades has not significantly changed the culture of national football. The disgraceful actions of supporters continue to tarnish the image of Indonesian competitions.

For example, members of The Jakmania, supporters of Persija Jakarta, committed acts of violence against supporters of Persib Bandung in the classic derby at Patriot Candrabhaga Stadium, Bekasi, West Java, Sunday (2/16/2025). The match ended 2-2 and was marred by chaos due to the presence of Bobotoh, the name for Persib supporters, at the stadium. The presence of away team supporters had actually been prohibited.

In addition to the "fire" that occurred in the stands, riots also broke out outside the match venue. Several rogue supporters were involved in altercations at various public facilities, one of which was a train station.

"We regret what happened in the Persija versus Persib match. We must work even harder in the upcoming home games to ensure that negative incidents do not recur," said Persija Director Mohamad Prapanca in a press statement.

Two days later, it was the turn of thousands of Persela Lamongan supporters to invade the Tuban Sports Center Stadium field, East Java, when their team underwent the final duel of the promotion playoff against Persijap Jepara. In a condition of being 0-1 behind with 11 minutes left in the second half, Persela supporters entered the field and damaged the stadium facilities.

Tuban Sports Center Stadium is the temporary home for several Liga 2 teams this season, such as Persela and Gresik United. The Head of the Tuban Department of Culture, Youth, Sports, and Tourism (Budporapar), M Emawan Putra, stated that the damage to the stadium includes 70 percent of the glass in all parts of the building, the tribune barrier fence, and even the grass has also suffered damage.

"The estimated loss is IDR 200 million to IDR 300 million," said Emawan in a written statement.

The supporter riot indicates that Indonesian football enthusiasts have not learned from the Kanjuruhan Tragedy on October 1, 2022, which claimed 135 lives.

The largest football tragedy in Asia means nothing. In fact, stakeholders are trying to undermine those who demand justice and are unwilling to forget the tragedy. Ultimately, the renovation of the blood-stained arena, Kanjuruhan Stadium, was carried out with state funds.

When only a matter of days left until Arema FC returned to their home ground in Kanjuruhan, riots erupted again. This indicates that the government, especially the Ministry of Youth and Sports, and PSSI have not succeeded in fostering supporters.

The supporter leadership discussion activities that had emerged at the beginning of the leadership of PSSI General Chairman Erick Thohir did not have a significant impact. The ban on visiting team supporters from coming to the stadium also failed to anticipate a number of riots between supporters.

The coaching of supporters that was the mandate of the Joint Fact Finding Team of the Kanjuruhan Tragedy failed to be carried out. There was no acceleration program carried out by PSSI to fix the football culture at the grassroots level.

In addition, the rules for supporters are actually a mandate of Law Number 11 of 2022 concerning Sports. In the legal basis, the obligations and rights of supporters are clear, but in practice it has not been implemented entering the third year of the Sports Law in effect.

Amidst the attitudes of a number of supporters who are not mature enough to understand the rivalry on the green field, problems are also presented with the phenomenon of declining enthusiasm of supporters who watch Liga 1 matches live.

The 2024-2025 season has the potential to record the lowest stadium occupancy rate since the Liga 1 era began in 2017. Until the 23rd week, Liga 1 matches have only attracted 886,972 supporters who came directly to the stadium. This means that each match was only watched by an average of 5,039 pairs of eyes.

Referring to that number, the stadium occupancy rate at the end of this season will only reach around 1.3 million spectators. That number has decreased compared to 1,569,123 spectators or an average of 5,726 spectators per game in the 2023-2024 season.

Since Liga 1 2017, the phenomenon of decreasing stadium occupancy rates has occurred consistently every season. In Liga 1 2017, the average number of supporters watching the match live was 10,501 supporters per game or an accumulated number of 3,098,004 spectators.

However, the average number has decreased in subsequent seasons. Starting from 9,678 spectators per game in the 2018 season, then to 7,506 spectators per game in 2022-2023 which was the first season after the Covid-19 pandemic treated the return of supporters to the stadium.

PT Liga Indonesia Baru President Director Ferry Paulus said that the decrease in supporters to the stadium was a shared homework. The situation of the stadium, which is mostly undergoing renovation, is also the cause of the arena stands often looking empty.

"After the stadium is handed over (to the club) there will be packages to attract spectators. However, the purchasing power of the community has indeed decreased, even though the league (quality) has grown," Ferry said some time ago.

The supporters' disgraceful actions coupled with the declining public enthusiasm cannot be separated from the quality of the national competition. The disappointment of football fans that went too far caused a number of riots to break out entering the crucial times of this season.

This was seen when chaos occurred in the Deltras Sidoarjo versus Persibo Bojonegoro match, January 11, at the Gelora Delta Sidoarjo Stadium, East Java. The unsportsmanlike actions of Deltras players and supporters were caused by the referee's decision which was considered controversial to validate Persibo's equalizer.

The incident occurred amidst improvements to the Liga 1 match equipment by presenting the video assistant referee (VAR), improving the quality of referees, and involving foreign referees, protests against the quality of referees are also still emerging.

There were also a number of controversial decisions in the PSPS Pekanbaru versus Persiraja Banda Aceh duel which was won by PSPS 1-0, February 11, at the Kaharuddin Nasution Stadium, Pekanbaru, Riau. The Persiraja coaching team and players protested the leadership of referee Amri Nurhadi.

Persib coach Bojan Hodak also questioned the decision of PT LIB and PSSI not to use an imported referee to lead his team's match against Persija. In fact, said Hodak, the classic derby presented a very high match tension.

During January to February, there were two foreign referees brought in by PSSI, namely Ko Hyung-jin (South Korea) and Clifford Daypuyat (Philippines). Ko led the Persebaya versus Malut United duel, January 17. Meanwhile, Daypayut was in charge of two League 2 promotion playoff games between Deltras against PSPS and FC Bekasi against Adhyaksa FC.

Entering the final period of Liga 1, PSSI brought back two imported referees from Singapore, Muhammad Taqi and Clarence Leow.

"We bring in foreign referees in League 1 and League with the aim of learning for local referees to weigh experience and improve quality. Then, the international referees are also expected to help the quality of our league become more professional," said Erick who is also the Chairman of the PSSI Referee Committee.

There have indeed been steps to improve the competition by PSSI, but normal changes are not enough. League improvements and supporter development require accelerated action from sports stakeholders so that changes are truly felt at the grassroots level.

The acceleration of national football development only touches the national team which is actually the "cherry" on top of the "cake" of national football development. The cherry is indeed blooming red and beautiful, but the cake is not delicious to look at and eat.