The Long Term History of Soccer  in Indonesia

Soccer is a game with a ball tool played by 2 teams. Each team consists of eleven players. Football until today has been played over 250 million people from more than two hundred countries. Soccer is the most popular game today. Soccer was invented in China in the 2nd century BC. Football was first played with a ball made of leather and dribbled with legs. In 1365, King Edward III banned the game of football because it was considered to be a lot of violence during the game. To see more about the history of soccer in Indonesia, you may see these paragraphs below.

• Brought by the Dutch during their colonialism

Indonesian soccer began in 1914 when Indonesia was still colonized by the Dutch East Indies government. Inter-city competition in Java is only in champion by two teams or in the dominance of two teams only, namely Batavia City, Soerabaja City.

History of Modern Football in Indonesia began with the formation of PSSI (Football Association of Indonesia) on 19 April 1930 in Yogyakarta with the chairman Soeratin Sosrosoegondo. As a sporting organization born in the Dutch colonial era, the birth of PSSI is however related to political activities against colonialism.

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• Indonesian soccer was recognized FIFA for the first time

In the 1930s, there were three societies based on the Nederlandsch Indische Voetbal Bond (NIVB) in 1936, which belonged to the Dutch, Hwa Nan Voetbal Bond (HNVB ) belongs to the Chinese nation, and Persatoean Sepakraga Seloeroeh Indonesia (PSSI) owned by Indonesians.

Entering the 1930s, the prestige of Bond NIVB field stars, G Rehatta and de Wolf, began to meet the twilight stars of Chinese and indigenous bond stars, such as Maladi, Sumadi, and Ernst Mangindaan. In 1933, VIJ came out as champion in the 3rd PSSI championship.

In 1938 Indonesia qualified for the World Cup. Delivery of teams Indonesia (Dutch East Indies) had experienced obstacles. NIVU (Nederlandsche Indische Voetbal Unie) or the Dutch football organization in Jakarta has an argument with the Indonesian Football Association (PSSI) which was established in April 1930. PSSI chaired by Soeratin Sosrosoegondo, a longtime German graduate engineer in Europe, wants PSSI players delivered. However, eventually the squad was dispatched without PSSI players and used the FIFA-recognized NIVU flag.

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• The establishment of PSSI

PSSI was founded by a civil engineer named Soeratin Sosrosoegondo. He completed his education at the Higher Technical School in Heckelenburg, Germany, in 1927 and returned home in 1928. When he returned, Soeratin worked for a Dutch building company, Sizten en Lausada, headquartered in Yogyakarta.

Soeratin was a young man active in the field of movement. As a young man who liked to play soccer, he realizes the importance of implementing the agreed points of grain in a meeting of Indonesian youths on October 28, 1928 (Youth Pledge). Soeratin saw football as the best container for sowing nationalism among youth as a means to oppose the Dutch.

To realize his ideals, Soeratin diligently held meetings with soccer figures in Solo, Yogyakarta, and Bandung. The meeting was conducted with private contacts secretly to avoid the Dutch Police (PID) ambush.

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Then, while meeting at the small Binnenhof hotel on Jalan Kramat 17, Jakarta, Soeri, the chairman of VIJ (Voetbalbond Indonesische Jakarta), as well as other administrators, matured the idea of ​​a national football organization.

Furthermore, the maturation of the ideas was carried out again in Bandung, Yogyakarta, and Solo which was done with several national movement figures, such as Daslam Hadiwasito, Amir Notopratomo, A. Hamid, and Soekarno (not Bung Karno). Meanwhile, for other cities, maturation is done by personal contact or by courier, as with Soediro who became Chairman of the Young Association of Magelang.

From the meeting, decision was made to establish PSSI, short for Persatoean Sepak Raga Seloeroeh Indonesia. PSSI name and then changed in the congress PSSI in Solo in 1930 into the All Indonesia football association at once set Ir. Soeratin as general chairman.

• During independence periods

The increasing number of PSSI members which reached by 40 cities spread across Java, Makasar, Medan and Padang in 1942, showed a high interest of this nation against football.

Because the PSSI was dissolved by the colonial government when Japan came to power and all mass gathering activities must be under Japanese supervision, no football matches were recorded during the Nippon occupation. Moreover, the Japanese colonial government required the people of Indonesia at that time to follow Taiso, a type of Japanese-style gymnastics.

After the full independence in 1945, the spirit of Indonesian football again increased. One of the momentum of determination was the event of the National Sports Week or PON in 1948. Finally in 1950, PSSI re-activated through the transformation of the football department in the sport of the republic, PORI. In the same year, Persib Bandung won the national competition in Semarang after beating Persebaya Surabaya in the top party.

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• The prestige of Indonesian soccer was not so amazing

After the death of Soeratin Sosrosoegondo, the achievement of Indonesian national football team is not very satisfactory because the national team coaching is not balanced with the development of organization and competition.

In the era before the 1970s, some Indonesian players had competed in international competitions which include Ramang, Sucipto Suntoro, Ronny Pattinasarani, and Tan Liong Houw.

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• PSSI started to create the new policy for Indonesian soccer

In its development, PSSI has expanded the domestic football competition, among others with the implementation of Super League Indonesia, Division Main, Division One, and Division Two for non-amateur players, and Division Three for amateur players. In addition, PSSI is also actively developing women’s football competitions and competitions in certain age groups (U-15, U-17, U-19, U21, and U-23).

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• The internal problem of PSSI during 20’s century

PSSI is the only parent of a sports organization registered in State news since 8 years after Indonesia became independent. PSSI under the leadership of Nurdin Halid has several things considered controversy, among others: the easyness of Nurdin Halid to give the forgiveness of the violation, not the end of Nurdin Halid’s position as Chairman even though he was imprisoned, unsavory issues circulating during the election of Chairman in 2010, and overreaction over the holding of the Premier League Indonesia.

Those are the history of Indonesian soccer. Although the development of the soccer in Indonesia couldn’t be as good as in Europe or US, PSSI and also the government still do much strives to make them go international.

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