Indonesia's football blues

Indonesia's football blues

By Christopher Gunness
BBC East Asia Today

Indonesia once made the World Cup finals

Indonesia is a nation of over 200 million people, obsessed with the beautiful game.

But in spite of this footy fanaticism, the beautiful game is in an appalling mess.

The Menteng Stadium, home to top Jakarta side Persija, is rusty and ramshackle and looks like it was abandoned 30 years ago.

When I visited, Persija was in a practice session and the team just looked like a bunch of teenagers anywhere in the world kicking a ball around.

Herry Kiswanto, the coach, said the team had many problems to deal with.

"Sometimes in the hot season, the field is really hard. Some of the players complain if they fall down. It really hurts them and then it affects our tactics too," he said.

Foreign allegiance

Riana Jakasouria, a former footballer and leading pundit on Indonesian football, said the country's game needed "money first for building the organisations... some organisation, and then a strong coach, and also strong players".

Many Indonesians are fans of David Beckham

It is all a million miles away from the heyday of Indonesian football.

Indonesia, or the Dutch East Indies as it was then, actually made it to the World Cup finals in 1938 for the first and only time.

But today, it seems, the foreign clubs are the ones inspiring fans in Indonesia.

The main leagues of England, Italy, Spain and Germany are all available on TV.

At the official Manchester United football shop in Jakarta, I was confronted by what can only be described as a triptych.

The central piece is a Manchester United logo, about three or four feet across and garishly illuminated.

The two side panels are life-size pictures of captain David Beckham and Ruud van Nistelrooy, the team's Dutch striker.

Inside, of course, there is merchandise of all sorts.

One of the customers, Yunis, told me he wanted to buy some shirts.

When asked to name two world footballers at random, Yunis listed David Beckham and Michael Owen.

But he was unable to name the captain of the Indonesian national football team.