Three years ago this Wednesday, 135 football fans died at the Kanjuruhan stadium in Indonesia after security forces deployed teargas and created a stampede for the exits. 1 October 2022 was the nadir of a curve that had been sliding downwards for decades. This is a country that, in this century alone, has seen its FA president run the federation from a prison cell while facing corruption charges, the creation of rebel national leagues, federations and national team Fifa bans and fans being killed by other fans.
In March 2023 there were more negative headlines when the country was stripped of hosting the Under-20 World Cup just months before kick-off after the governor of Bali said that Israel would not be welcome on the island. Erick Thohir, former owner of Inter and DC United and current co-owner of Oxford United, had just become boss of PSSI, as the federation is known, and did his utmost to save the tournament. Football fans braced themselves for Fifa punishment and more chaos to come. Instead, the world governing body was sufficiently impressed with the efforts of Thohir, who has been a cabinet minister for years, to give the country the Under-17 World Cup in November. It was a success and brought some much-needed positivity.
That would be nothing compared to qualifying for the World Cup and the national team are only 180 minutes away. When Fifa expanded the tournament to 48 teams, it hoped that China and India would make it but Indonesia, the fourth most populous nation on the planet and with more passion for the game than those other sleeping giants, would be quite a consolation. On 8 and 14 October, Team Garuda face Saudi Arabia and Iraq in a three-team round-robin playoff. The winner goes to North America.
Whatever happens, Indonesia is part of the final dozen in Asia, an almost unthinkable improvement on past attempts. Thailand and Vietnam, two more successful south-east Asian nations, reached the final round of qualification for the 2018 and 2022 tournaments and managed a combined total of six points from their 20 games. Indonesia got double that tally from half the matches, notably beating Saudi Arabia, China and Bahrain while drawing with Australia.
Naturalisation is the main driver. The former Dutch colony has gone heavy on European-born players (mostly from the Netherlands) with Indonesian heritage. This year, as many as eight or nine have started games. Patrick Kluivert was appointed as the national team head coach in January after the dismissal of the South Korean Shin Tae-yong. Results weren’t the problem but the former Barcelona striker was seen as a better fit for a team that had basically become European and communicated in Dutch and/or English. Indonesia are not the first or last to go down this route in Asia but few have done it so as aggressively and with such swift results. There have been concerns about the identity of this national team but getting to the World Cup would allay most of those, for now at least.
The same can be said about Kluivert’s coaching career in relation to his exploits on the pitch, with spells in charge of Curaçao and the Turkish team Adana Demirspor. Results so far have been OK. His first was a 5-1 loss in Australia, a scoreline that was harsh. The subsequent wins over Bahrain and China, the rivals for that all-important playoff spot, were the crucial ones and while there was no disgrace in losing in Japan, to do so 6-0 against an experimental team was a disappointment.
This is his biggest test. Facing Saudi Arabia in Jeddah (yes, the games are all taking place in Saudi Arabia and the hosts have a six-day rest between their games while the visitors play twice in three days) in front of 60,000 is going to be tough. Yet Indonesia drew there in the previous round of qualification and all the pressure is on the hosts who have not exactly impressed of late. Then it all comes down to a showdown against Iraq, a team with a history of talent but also of underachieving in World Cup qualification.
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Photograph: Robertus Pudyanto/Getty Images
Getting to the World Cup finals for the first time since 1938, and that was as Dutch East Indies, would give the whole football scene a boost. The national team may be in the top 12 in Asia and first in Asean but Indonesia’s BRI Super League is ranked 25 on the continent and sixth in its own region. A rebranding ahead of this season promised to bring in more sponsorship and broadcasting revenue but these are still early days. A major issue is the ban on away fans. This has been in place since the disaster of 2022. Fifa has established an office in Jakarta to oversee an improvement in safety standards. The organisation was, according to reports, ready to lift the ban for the new campaign but changed its mind when its officials attended the final match of last season and Persib Bandung fans, celebrating their title win, let off flares and firecrackers that twice stopped the game. There are also still reports of salaries being paid late or not at all.
There are still issues then and while the World Cup would not solve everything, it would be another – and the biggest – sign of progress since that darkest day three years ago.
