Football Association of Indonesia

Football Association of Indonesia

AFC
Founded	19 April 1912
FIFA affiliation	1952
AFC affiliation	1954
President	Djohar Arifin Husein
Website	pssi-football.com

The Football Association of Indonesia, commonly called PSSI (Indonesian language: Persatuan Sepak Bola Seluruh Indonesia; sometimes translated as All-Indonesian Football Association, is the governing body of football in Indonesia. It was founded on April 19, 1930, 15 years before Indonesian independence. PSSI joined the Asian Football Confederation in 1954 and FIFA in 1952.

History

Old logo of Football Association of Indonesia.

Early history

PSSI was established by Soeratin Sosrosoegondo, who graduated from Harvard and came back to Indonesia in 1928. He became the first Indonesian to work at his company, a Dutch company in Yogyakarta. He later resigned from the company and became more active in the revolutionary movement. As a man who loved football, he realised that football could be one of Indonesia's "weapons" to gather Indonesian men and force the Dutch colonies to leave Indonesia.

To accomplish his mission, Soeratin held many meetings with Indonesian football professional players, mostly through personal contacts because they wanted to avoid the Dutch police. Later, at a meeting that was held in Jakarta with Soeri, the head of Voetbalbond Indonesische Jakarta (VIJ, and other players, they decided to establish a national football organization. On April 19, 1930, almost all non-national organizations, such as Voetbalbond Indonesische Jakarta representing Jakarta, BIVB Bandung,), PSIM Yogyakarta, PPSM Madiun, IVBM Magelang, SIVB Surabaya, and VVB Solo gathered at the final meeting and established Persatoean Sepak Raga Seloeroeh Indonesia (Football Association of Indonesia or PSSI) with Soeratin as the first leader.

In PSSI's earlier years, they mainly used football as a method to resist the Dutch control of the colonies by gathering all the footballers, who were mostly men.^{[citation needed]} In 1936, when PSSI became stronger, NIVB was changed to NIVU (Nederlandsh Indische Voetbal Unie, means Football Union of Dutch East Indies) and cooperation with the Dutch began. In 1938, with Dutch East Indies national football team as their name, NIVU sent their team to the 1938 FIFA World Cup at France. At the time, most of the players came from NIVU instead of PSSI, and there were nine Chinese origin player. As a result, Soeratin expressed his protest since he wanted a match between NIVU and PSSI before the FIFA World Cup. In addition, he was also disgraced because the flag that was used at the World Cup matches involved Dutch East Indies was the Dutch flag. Soeratin then cancelled the agreement with NIVU at the PSSI congress in 1939 in Solo.

Japanese occupation

When the Japan armies came to Indonesia, PSSI became inactive because Japan classified PSSI as a Taiikukai (体育会) organization, or a Japanese sport association.

Modern day crisis and today situation

On April 4, 2011, FIFA devolved the current PSSI executive committee of all of its responsibilities after FIFA's emergencies committee decreed it was "not in control of football in Indonesia" and had lost "all credibility."

On July 9, 2011, Djohar Arifin Husein was elected chairman of the PSSI, from 2011 to 2015 through an 2011 PSSI Extraodinary Congress. Djohar was elected after defeating the other candidate, Agusman Effendi. His vice-chairman was Farid Rahman.^{[citation needed]}

National teams

Main article: Indonesia national football team

Currently, Indonesia has the following football national teams:

• Indonesia national football team
• Indonesia national under-23 football team
• Indonesia national under-21 football team
• Indonesia national under-19 football team
• Indonesia national under-16 football team
• Indonesia national futsal team
• Indonesia national women's football team

Club competitions

Main article: Indonesian football league system

PSSI is made up of five levels of national football leagues, which are Indonesia Super League (ISL), Premier Division, First Division, Second Division and Third Division. The top three levels are professional competitions and the rest are amateur competitions.

There are other football competitions on national level, namely the National Youth League (U-15), Indonesian Women Football Tournament, Indonesian National Futsal League and Indonesia Super League U-21 which are held in similar esteem to the ISL.

Furthermore, each regional level (and lower) football associations in the country has its own annual amateur football competition structure involving local clubs.

Principals of PSSI

Chairman

• Soeratin Sosrosoegondo (1930–1940)
• Artono Martosoewignyo (1941–1949)
• Maladi (1950–1959)
• Abdul Wahab Djojohadikusumo (1960–1964)
• Maulwi Saelan (1964–1967)
• Kosasih Poerwanegara (1967–1974)
• Bardosono (1975–1977)
• Moehono (ad interim) (1977)
• Ali Sadikin (1978–1981)
• Syarnoebi Said (1982–1983)
• Kardono (1983–1991)
• Azwar Anas (1991–1999)
• Agum Gumelar (1999–2003)
• Nurdin Halid (2003–2011)
• Agum Gumelar (normalization committee chairman, ad interim, April until July 2011)
• Djohar Arifin Husein (2011–2015)

Boards

PSSI has 4 organizations in its organizational structure, namely: the Liga Indonesia Inc. (or PT. Liga Indonesia in Indonesian) which is responsible for the super league and premier division, the Board for Amateur Leagues for the first, second and third divisions, Board for National Team (BTN) for national teams and Board for Futsal National Team (BFN) for national futsal teams.

Controversies and critics

Nurdin Halid corruption scandal

Former chairman of PSSI, Nurdin Halid, was sentenced to jail as a result of his corruption.^{[citation needed]} Although he has been urged to resign from the position, he was able to resist with the help of one of the political party leaders in the country.^{[citation needed]} FIFA conducted an inspection into the claims but did not continue past this phase. The case was never investigated again.

2010 AFF Suzuki Cup

At the end of 2010, during the AFF Cup final between Indonesia and Malaysia, Nurdin Halid accepted a lunch invitation from Aburizal Bakrie, a wealth businessman and owner of Pelita Jaya.^{[citation needed]} At the time, the national team was preparing for the finals and the training was disrupted by the lunch invitation and another ceremony accepted by Nurdin Halid was unwelcomed.^{[citation needed]} This upset many in the country because it seemed that the national team was being used to propel Halid's image.^{[citation needed]} Indonesia ended up losing to Malaysia with the aggregate 4-2.

Former Indonesia manager, Alfred Riedl, who coached the team during the tournament, called the lunch invitation as 'wasting time'.^{[citation needed]}

Bribery allegation

In January 2011, someone named "Eli Cohen" has sent an e-mail to the President of Indonesia and few other Indonesia leaders indicating that the officers of PSSI had been involved in bribery for the 2010 AFF Cup final.^{[citation needed]} He wrote that the officers gained billions of rupiah from the bet to prepare the campaign in the next PSSI congress. This case is under investigation.^{[citation needed]}

Normalisation Committee and selection of new chairman

On April 1, 2011, FIFA emergency committee met and announced that, on April 4, control of the PSSI would pass to a normalisation committee made up of personalities in Indonesian football to oversee presidential elections by May 21. It also barred Halid, George Toisutta (the Indonesia Armed Forces general), Arifin Panigoro (founder of Liga Primer Indonesia and Nirwan Bakrie (Halid`s vice-president, and son of Aburizal Bakrie) from contending for the presidency seat.

FIFA also devolved the current PSSI executive committee of all of its responsibilities after FIFA's emergencies committee decreed it was "not in control of football in Indonesia" and had lost "all credibility." In a statement released on April 4, 2011, FIFA said that the current PSSI leadership's lack of control over Indonesian football was evidenced by "the failure to gain control of the run-away league (LPI) set up without the involvement of PSSI or by the fact it could not organise a congress whose sole goals were to adopt an electoral code and elect an electoral commission." It said that its emergency committee had concluded that the PSSI leadership "had lost all credibility" and was no longer "in a position anymore to lead the process to solve the current crisis."

The Normalisation Committee, made up of personalities in Indonesian football who are not seeking electoral office or a position on an electoral commission, led by famous public figure and former PSSI chairman, Agum Gumelar, is to take over running of Indonesian football until new leadership is elected by May 21.

Sponsorship

• Nike
• Pertamina
• Semen Padang
• Bukit Asam
• Telkom Indonesia
• Bank Mandiri
• SCTV

See also

• Indonesian football league system

External links

• Official website
• Indonesia at FIFA site
• Indonesia at AFC site