Still Short of Players, Women's League Planned to Roll in 2027

JAKARTA, KOMPAS — PSSI's plan to start the Women's League in 2026 has a big chance of not being realized. The lack of player quota and the still in the economic calculation stage of organizing the competition are the main reasons for the postponement of the Women's League until at least 2027.

PSSI Chairman Erick Thohir ensured that the Women's League formula had been discussed in detail by the PSSI Executive Committee. It is planned that the Women's League will be followed by eight teams. Participants in the Women's League will also be a combination of women's teams from the Indonesian League 1 contestants with teams formed by private companies.

However, Erick said, the plan to hold the Women's League is still constrained by a very limited talent pool. He said the coaching process assisted by the private sector has started from the age level of 12 and 14 years, so it still takes time for the players to be ready to play at the professional competition level.

"From the calculation of the talent pool, then in 2027 the availability of players will be sufficient. If possible in 2026 the league can be held, but I don't want to be too aggressive because I want to ensure that the players can match the needs of the eight teams," said Erick in Jakarta, Saturday (22/2/2025).

The youth competition refers to the MilkLife Soccer Challenge tournament that has been held since 2022. In the youth tournament for female soccer players, MilkLife started coaching from Kudus, Central Java. Until the 2024 season, the tournament has spread to seven other cities in Java Island, such as Jakarta, Tangerang (Banten), Solo (Central Java), Semarang (Central Java), Yogyakarta, Bandung (West Java), and Surabaya (East Java).

In addition, a number of women's tournaments have also taken place in the past year, for example, the Pertiwi Cup and the Bandung Women's League. The two tournaments were attended by teenage footballers.

In addition to the availability of players, Erick said, PSSI is also still preparing various policies to ensure that the Women's League does not burden contestants financially. With sufficient preparation time to prepare the team, Erick hopes that the Women's League teams have adequate financial preparation.

One of the things that PSSI is concerned about is the implementation of the competition that does not burden the club in terms of accommodation. Therefore, the Women's League at the beginning of its presence will be focused on Java, then only Bali has the opportunity to present a team outside the most densely populated island in Indonesia.

"The Women's League transportation is focused on each team only having to play by train. This is an effort to keep costs as low as possible so that no club "coughs" in the middle of the road," said Erick.

He added, "The women's teams are targeted to spend 8 to 14 billion per season. So, the operational costs are equivalent to League 2 teams. I have to make sure the team's economy is healthy."

In a press release in September 2024, Erick confirmed that the Women's League will be held like the women's competition in the United States and Australia. The women's competition does not recognize the promotion-relegation system for the sake of club stability. Erick said that this is to provide protection for each team to be able to compete in the competition continuously.

"We prioritize the women's league followed by League 1 teams who want to have a women's club. On the other hand, we also open up opportunities for the private sector who want to invest in forming a women's team," said Erick (Kompas.id, 21/9/2024).

The Women's League seems to be a hope amidst PSSI's ambition to improve the quality of the women's national team. The last time the Women's League was held was in 2019. At that time, 10 clubs became contestants divided into two groups. Persib Bandung was the champion of the 2019 Women's League 1.

The absence of women's competition has made Indonesian Women's Team Coach Satoru Mochizuki rely only on tournaments to find players since taking over "Garuda Pertiwi" in February 2024. He also focused on conducting long-term training camps to improve his team's performance.

PSSI has sent the women's team to undergo training camps to the Middle East and the Netherlands last year. In February 2025, the Garuda Pertiwi squad underwent a trial match against Saudi Arabia, then continued the training camp in Japan.