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SPORTS | Mar 03, 2010

Australia, Indonesia Must Not Be Strangers

When Australia and Indonesia meet in today’s Asian Cup qualifier in Brisbane, it has been widely suggested by experts, including this newspaper, that the Merah Putih will be playing for little more than pride.

Out of contention for Qatar 2011 and with their 2022 World Cup bid in disarray, the Indonesians have an opportunity to save some face and, if they win, knock Australia out of the Asian Cup.

There is little chance of that happening, with the 136th-ranked team in the world up against Asia’s No. 1 team, an Asian Cup qualifier to boot, well away from the equalizing influence of Gelora Bung Karno Stadium.

Indonesia’s motivation should lie beyond the result, though. The bigger prize is building a better bilateral relationship through football, the world’s true language.

For two countries separated by just 800 or so kilometers (the distance between the cities of Darwin and Kupang), Australia and Indonesia should have played far more matches than the 14 they have contested since 1967. New Zealand, Australia’s other significant football rival in the Asia-Pacific neighborhood, has met the Socceroos more than 60 times.

The football history between the two nations is rich, fascinating and colorful. In 1928, an Australian invitational squad of 16 players toured the Dutch East Indies and played 23 games against club and regional sides. With 17 wins, the tour initially looks as though it was a walk in the park for the Aussies.

However, they met their match in HBS Sourabaya, losing twice by a 3-1 scoreline, and succumbing 2-1 to a Java XI.

Australian football historian Greg Stock, who has researched the tour, told the Jakarta Globe: “The tour was a weird one in that it came during the first breakaway movement in Australian football and wasn’t very well documented. The touring side basically played almost every day for two months and received little interest in Australia.

“The East Javanese apparently loved it and heavily supported the tour, hence it went longer than was originally planned.”

In fact, it was so successful they chose to do it all over again three years later. A group of 19 Australians played 12 games with wins by whopping scorelines, but they notably lost to HBS and Bandoeng and were humiliated 3-0 by Hercules Batavia.

The two countries did not meet again for nearly four decades, so the so-called “Memorandum of Understanding” recently signed by Football Federation Australia and the Indonesian Football Association (PSSI) has been a long time coming.

Described as a “landmark agreement” by FFA chairman Frank Lowy, it promises a whole lot with not much detail — exchanges, a bumped-up bilateral international program, laying down the welcome mat for Australia into the Asean zone of the Asian Football Confederation.

It is hard also not to escape the feeling it has been patched together as a form of political leverage for Australia in its determined World Cup bid, and equally an act of desperation by the Indonesians, who were said to be keen on staging group games in an Australian World Cup with their hopes of hosting the event itself totally shot. The Australians have since politely declined to even entertain that idea.

However, the MoU is a step in the right direction and opens up a plethora of possibilities for the two nations in football.

One could be an Australia–Indonesia Cup, an annual showdown between the two nations, played home and away. Another is inviting an Indonesian side into the Australian A-League. Wellington Phoenix has shown it can cut it in the Australian competition — why not Persipura Jayapura or Arema Malang?

Failing both outcomes, we should at least see more Indonesians playing in Australia, something that up to this point has proved too difficult for the likes of talented left back Erol Iba, for instance. While playing for Persik Kediri, he was coveted by Sydney FC and was keen himself to come to Australia but could not agree financial terms. The cash-strapped Australians were amazed at how much he was being paid already in Indonesia.

That is one point of difference between the Indonesian and Australian leagues. The Indonesian Super League is awash with tobacco money, which enables clubs to pay above-average wages. The A-League, as with all professional sports in Australia, does not allow tobacco sponsorship and has a restrictive salary cap in place. Because of this, many Australian players in state leagues are bypassing the A-League altogether and looking to land fat contracts in Java or Sumatra. Indonesian players, meanwhile, who collectively former Indonesia coach Peter Withe described in January as solely “motivated by money”, are preferring to stay home.

The endgame for the FFA and PSSI, however, has to be an Indonesia-Australia World Cup. In the likely scenario that England wins 2018 and the Americans 2022, it is an eminently achievable dream.

One thing Indonesia has going for it over Australia is people. Its population of 240 million dwarfs Australia’s 20 million and makes it the big hitter in Southeast Asia just by virtue of numbers and potential. It also has a passionate supporter base. Australia has neither, but it has professionalism and a sporting infrastructure that puts Indonesia’s in the shade.

Combined, Indonesia-Australia could be an irresistible candidate for a World Cup — an event that would appeal to FIFA’s insatiable desire to conquer the world, bring enormous social and economic benefits to the entire region and, more importantly, facilitate greater cooperation and cultural understanding between our two seemingly disparate nations. Politics has not got us that far in nearly a century — why not football?

First things first: Indonesia has to pick up its game.

The national team is a rabble, managed by a man, Benny Dollo, who did not have his contract renewed and rightly so. A new, foreign coach could turn the Merah Putih around just like Guus Hiddink did with South Korea and Australia, but he needs to invest in youth and be given free rein to do as he pleases, even if it brings him into conflict with the PSSI.

For its part, the national body needs a cleanout, just like Australia’s federation did early last decade. Having the PSSI and Indonesian government warring over what is best for the sport is not a good look. Nor is your treasurer being arrested for allegedly killing his wife by bashing her over the head with a laptop.

Restoring Indonesian football’s reputation is going to be difficult, but with friends in the right places, a bit of hard work and some big-picture thinking, anything — even a World Cup final at Gelora Bung Karno — is possible.

Jesse Fink is the author of “15 Days in June: How Australia Became a Football Nation” and a columnist for SBS and ESPN STAR Sports. In the 1700s and 1800s, his ancestors, the Vinks, settled in Ternate and Java.

Source: The Jakarta Globe

Indonesian Lifestyle 2008