In July, three score of the world's highest paid footballers will visit Indonesia to play off-season friendlies. Their three EPL clubs - Arsenal (14/7), Liverpool (20/7) and Chelsea (25/7) - will earn, and depart with, millions of consumer and sports marketing dollars. Meanwhile, players in Indonesian football, local and foreign, are denied payment of salaries, suffer unfair dismissal, and left
Indonesia it seems is moving ever closer to the precipice. FIFA are thought to be in the mood to really do something to settle the nonsense once and for all that has seen a country divided into two governing bodies, two leagues and for a moment two national teams.
If FIFA does what it should have done years ago and ban Indonesia from international competition then we can kiss goodbye to Arsenal coming here next year.
Indonesia's Chelsea fans can expect to see "the strongest squad available" and "two to three new faces" when the Blues visit Jakarta for the last friendly match of the club's preseason tour in July.
Chelsea will follow on the heels of English Premier League foe Arsenal as the second big-time club from England's top flight to play in the capital this year, with the match scheduled for July 25.
Mais um jogo das eliminatórias da Copa da Ásia 2015, foi realizado no dia 06/02/2013, na cidade de Dubai-UAE, onde jogaram as seleções do Iraque (89º no ranking da FIFA) e a seleção da Indonesia (170º no ranking da FIFA).
Antes desse jogo, as 2 seleções jogaram: Eliminatórias Copa do Mundo
Mais um jogo da AFF Suzuki 2012, foi realizado no dia 01/12/2012, na cidade de Kuala Lumpur-MAS, onde jogaram as seleções da Malásia (163º no ranking da FIFA) e a seleção da Indonesia (165º no ranking da FIFA).
Antes desse jogo, as 2 seleções jogaram: Eliminatórias Copa do Mundo
1978
Singapore
03/03/1977
IDN
0:0
MAS
Primeira Fase
Eliminatórias Continentais
1996
Kuala Lumpur
02/03/1996
MAS
0:0
IDN
Rodada preliminar
1992
Singapore
25/04/1992
MAS
1:1 (0:0)
IDN
Rodada preliminar
1976
Bangkok
13/01/1979
MAS
4:1
IDN
1976
Bangkok
20/03/1975
MAS
0:0
IDN
1972
Bangkok
01/06/1971
MAS
3:0 (1:0)
IDN
O árbitro, foi: Valentin Kovalenko (Uzbekistan)
Scout:
Azamuddin Mohd Akil (27) 1 - 0 Mahali Jasuli (30) 2 - 0
Mais um jogo da AFF Suzuki 2012, foi realizado no dia 28/11/2012, na cidade de Kuala Lumpur-MSA, onde jogaram as seleções da Indonesia (165º no ranking da FIFA) e a seleção de Cingapura (163º no ranking da FIFA).
Antes desse jogo, as 2 seleções jogaram: Eliminatórias Copa do Mundo
Mais um jogo da AFF Suzuki Cup, foi realizado no dia 25/11/2012, na cidade de Kuala Lumpur-MAS, onde jogaram as seleções da Indonesia (165º no ranking da FIFA) e a seleção do Laos (177º no ranking da FIFA).
Mais um jogo amistoso, foi disputado no dia 16/10/2012, na cidade de Hanoi-VIE, onde jogaram as seleções do Vietnã (140º no ranking da FIFA) e a seleção da Indonesia (170º no ranking da FIFA).
Antes desse jogo, as 2 seleções jogaram: Eliminatórias Copa do Mundo
Indonesia Super League Persib v Arema 1-0 (Sergio Van Dijk) 26,857 Sriwijaya v Persipura 0-2 (Boaz Solossa, Nelson Alom) 32,200 Pelita Bandung Raya v Persiwa (M Arsyid, Gaston Castano; Camara Sekou) 1,127 Persepam v Persita 1-1 (Busari; OG) 12,389 How about we give a big round of applause to Persiwa's ‘experienced Pieter Rumaropen?
One thing about South East Asian football. It is never dull. The headlines off the field are often far more exciting than what happens on it. You can't make up what happens here; not without having your own sanity questioned.
2012 has been as mental as ever. Indonesia continues to be the Noah's Ark of football.
Not many in Indonesia's expat circles would have heard of Diego Mendieta. The 32-year-old Paraguayan would have gone unrecognized had he ventured into the regular haunts of the varied oil and gas types, diplomats or teachers who call Indonesia home.
Mendieta was a footballer. He had left his family in his native Paraguay behind to come to Asia to ply his trade.
The recent ASEAN Football Federation meeting cleared the way for the long mooted ASEAN Super League to begin in 2014. The proposed league would see 16 teams from eight countries, (Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Myanmar, Vietnam, Cambodia, Philippines) competing for the right to be called ASEAN's best and early indications are that the clubs would be ‘franchised' similar to the model used in the United States and Australia.
I guess Indonesia won't be getting any suspension now.
They are bidding to host the ASEAN Football Federation Under 19s in September this year and four cities have thrown their hat into the bidding contest.
Banda Aceh, Yogyakarta, Bandung and Surabaya are hopeful of getting bragging rights for this competition which was hosted by Soreang a few years back.
Back in 2010 during the ASEAN Football Federation many people started creaming themselves over a couple of bright young hopes; Irfan Bachdim and Okta Maniani. Indeed the hype was such there were people saying Okta, a pacy wide man, had the potential not just to be the best in Indonesia, he was good enough to play overseas.
Arsenal made a very successful visit to the Far East last summer which ended in defeat by a Malaysia XI, and it seems that the Gunners are going to try and consolidate some of that global support by going back to the same continent again during the coming close season.
It was revealed a few days ago that Arsenal would be playing in Jakarta, facing the Indonesian national team on Sunday, July 14.
Indonesia have announced they will play Benin on 27 April in Jakarta.
Benin are much higher up the FIFA rankings than Indonesia which doesn't really mean much at the best of times but their squad is drawn up mostly of players working in Europe. The most well known is probably Stephane Sessegnon and I say he is the most well known because I am a small minded Little Englander and he plays for Sunderland so there.
FIFA had their much hyped gob fest today to decide what to do about the nonsense in Indonesia and they decided to stick to the same tired old path that has brought us this far. They delayed taking any decision.
To recap Indonesian football in the last few days. One player has died. The PSSI weren't allowed to hold their meeting in a meeting room and had to make do with a hotel lobby.
Persiram v Persisam 2-0 (James Koko Lomell, Soung Yong) 2,159 Persidafon v Mitra Kukar 0-2 (Jajang Maulyana, Frangipane) 600 Persiwa v Persija 2-0 (Vali Kenari, Yong Han) 3,375 Persib v Persegres 3-1 (Kenji Adichihara, M Ridwan, Sergio Van Dijk; Ambiring) 22,800 Persipura v PSPS 5-0 Ian Kabes, Boas Solossa 2, I Wanggai, Dutra) 18,233 Persepam v Pelita Bandung Raya 1-1 (Osas Marvelous; Gaston Castano) 12,389 Persela v Sriwijaya 1-2 (Samsul Arief; Tantan, Hilton Moreira) 11,157 Persita v Arema 0-1 (Cristian Gonzalez) 8,023 Persipura v Persija 1-0 (Boas Solossa) 17,560 Persiwa v PSPS 3-0 (Ferdinand Mote, Guy Junior 2) 2,875 Persib v Barito Putra 3-2 (Maman Abdulrahman, Sergio Van Dijk, Herman Abanda; Dedy Hartono, Sugeng) 14,575
OK these results come from last Saturday until yesterday and there aren't many surprises.
Seven years after the Indonesian capital province (DKI) destroyed the home ground of its leading football club, the 85-years-old Persija, to create the Menteng inner-city park, an allocation of US$110 million has been made to build an iconic stadium for the club in north Jakarta. The 2-year project will create a FIFA-standard international venue with a capacity of 50,000 spectators.
New rumors are flowing out of Indonesia and so I bring them from their fingers to your eyes. Just remember, we are not yet totally sure how Indonesian media fits into the spectrum of trustworthiness in rumors. All I know is that, for now, they are still more trustworthy than Central American sports rumors, who like to use their pieces to suggest moves for teams.
Once again we're given a name and some YouTube footage of a new signing (not to mention some healthy levels of skepticism regarding why he was signed) but precious little else. Time to fire up the FM 2013 Editor!
First things first: there aren't going to be any screenshots here or detailed comparisons to existing players because Alam in the FM database isn't a complete picture of a player.
Jordan v Singapore 4-0 2,004 Thailand v Kuwait 1-3 (Chanathip) 15,000 Lebanon v Thailand 5-2 (Thitiphan 2) 7,000 Iraq v Indonesia 1-0 3,600 Indonesia v Saudi Arabia 1-2 (Boas Solossa) 75,000 Qatar v Malaysia 2-0 7,320 Malaysia v Yemen 2-1 (Azamuddin, Khryil Muhyeem) 80,000
Well there is an impressive start to the Asian Cup qualifiers for the local nations.
You can rely on Indonesia to take something simple and complicate the crap out of it. Back in November we had the hilarious situation of a bunch of players, officials and coaches running round Brisbane masquerading as a national team, preparing to represent the country at the ASEAN Cup.
While the Merah Putih was still licking its wounds after a 1-0 loss to Iraq in the 2015 Asian Cup qualification on Wednesday, Indonesian football authorities made a surprise move by announcing a new head coach for the national team on Thursday.
Indonesia Football Association (PSSI) chairman Djohar Arifin Husin announced the appointment of Argentine Luis Manuel Blanco as new head coach, while refusing to elaborate on the future of current head coach Nil Maizar.
"This is a big country with a lot of talent. It should be top of the class," says Timo Scheunemann, a former coach and youth development director in the official league. "But this story has had more twists and turns than a Venezuelan telenovela.
Many of the biggest clubs in Europe have thousands, if not millions, of devoted supporters all over the world, but Juventus fans in Indonesia seem to be on another level of long-distance support. For Juve's Champions League match against Celtic on Wednesday, the Jogja chapter of Juventus Club Indonesia created a smaller version of a tifo display you'd see in the stadium.
Towards the end of last year Indonesia boasted two national teams preparing for the same competition. One was off on the Gold Coast in Australia playing some Sunday schools while the other, backed by the PSSI, actually went off and played the game in Malaysia at the AFF Cup.
The one in Australia, backed by the laughingly named Committee to Save Indonesian Football, came home and quietly disbanded, players returning to their respective clubs.
I see Indonesian football has been making waved around the world with the unlikely story that former Ukraine international Andrei Shevchenko is mulling a move to Mitra Kukar.
Talk is that the deal would be for 10 games. That could mean three coaches in this place plus a couple of lengthy road trips to Sumatra and Papua depending on the whims of the owners and the quirks of the fixture list.
It's been a long time coming but Sergio Van Dijk is now apparently an Indonesian citizen and has signed for Persib.
I think it was two or three years ago that new broke the striker was interested in playing in Indonesia and for Indonesia and now the 30 year old has made it.
He has been playing in Australia for the last four and half years averaging a goal every couple of games almost for first Brisbane Roar, then Adelaide United.
Even if you are one of the most successful coaches in Indonesia you are not given much slack by fans impatient for success yesterday.
Rahmad Darmawan has won the Indonesian title with Persipura (Liga Indonesia) and Sriwijaya (Indonesia Super League) as well as other cups in his career but that does nothing to impress the Arema fans who witnessed their team lose 2-0 in the East Java Governor's Cup at the Kanjuruhan Stadium on Sunday.
Football clubs in South East Asia are nothing like the image we have of football clubs in the west. They are not the oligarch run club with deep pockets exuding arrogance neither are they the plucky non league club held together by one old chap who collects the money at the turnstile, produces the matchday programme and cuts the grass on the pitch.
