Soccer chaos

The fans went crazy when the final whistle blew at Bandong's Jalak Harupan Stadium at the opening game of Indonesia's football season. The score after a pretty lame game was 1:1 but the fans of Persib Bandung and Semen Padang didn't care - they were just glad their teams had gotten through to the premier league this year. That put them in a better position than most of Indonesia’s football fans, who still don't know what league their clubs will play in. Oddly enough, Indonesia has two parallel premier leagues.

Three hundred kilometers away in the Indonesian capital Jakarta, an Austrian footballer sat in a café discussing the Indonesian football authorities: "They're all a bit crazy, they're really crazy," he said in a thick Viennese accent.

The former Austria Vienna champion became Indonesia's national coach in May 2010, and just over a year later he was fired without notice. This had nothing to do with his achievements, however, since even got his team to the finals of the South East Asian championship. No, he simply got caught up in a particularly messy power struggle.

Scandal upon scandal

With fixed results and bribes featuring heavily in Indonesian football, fans have got used to scandal upon scandal. Sandy Premuji who covers the game for the Jakarta Globe says the problem is that the country's soccer clubs belong to powerful provincial governors who use them in their election campaigns.

"Most Indonesian clubs are set up and financed with public funds," he says, adding that in some provinces the budge for soccer budget is higher than for education and health.

However, this year the corruption went just a bit too far. When Nurdin Halid, the former president of the Football Association of Indonesia, decided to run again for office Indonesia's football fans saw red. They booed him in the stadiums and refused to let a man who had spent two years in jail for tax evasion return to the stage. Riedl recalls that some games had to be played outside of Jakarta to avoid havoc.

New illegal Super League

It is amid the protests that oil tycoon Arifin Panigoro spotted his chance. He set up a movement to reform Indonesian football and illegally founded a new premier league. Spending an absolute fortune, he bought up new players and coaches for a total of 19 clubs.

Shortly afterwards, the elections for the presidency of the football association took place after twice being postponed and were won by Johar Arifin Hossein from Panigoro's ranks. Rumors have it that his victory was helped by massive bribes. Hossein quickly began ridding the association of his predecessor’s supporters, including Riedl.

"Everyone knows that it’s all about politics," says Premuji. "It's not about sport. With Halid and Panigoro, you've got two of Indonesia's richest families fighting against each other."

Nothing is clear

In the summer, the scandal went beyond national borders, with the international football association saying it was unacceptable for there to be two premier leagues in Indonesia. FIFA said the new illegal Super League should either be banned or merged with the old league.

But the 15 clubs of the old league refused the merger option and Panigoro was of course unwilling to disband his new league, considering the expense.

"Today, nothing is clear," says Premuji. "That's why Indonesia's football clubs are complaining so much right now. They can't sign up any player because they still don't know what league they'll be in." He says he's never seen so much chaos in his seven years of reporting on Indonesian soccer.

Riedl, for his part, is getting out of Indonesia. His new job is national coach of Laos where he hopes there will be fewer scandals…

Author: Thomas Latschan / act
Editor: Shamil Shams