The Most Dangerous Football League?

Football, an art form played on grass, a display of sporting excellence respected and enjoyed around the world, a sport which anyone can love. As a writer from the United Kingdom, I see football through an almost romantic lens, I see the good areas of the game, we all have our favourite teams and players, we discuss with friends and have a laugh at each other’s expense when results go against our own or our friend’s team. What if though it wasn’t just laughs, what if it resulted in more than that, unpleasant verbal interactions, physical altercations, violence and in some cases death. How can a sport so adored around the world become so violent in places? This is a case study on football in Indonesia and how the radical actions behind the scenes can label an entire country as unsafe for football fans.

Violence at football is not unheard of, it occurs all over the globe, policing has been increased for this exact reason, but often enough there are still stories of attacks on fans or on team coaches, players and even staff. Indonesia is no exception to this and in many cases is up towards the top of the pile when speaking of violence. A professional football league was introduced rather late in comparison to other nations with the Liga Indonesia being introduced in 1994, this has since become the Liga 1 as of 2017. On the pitch Indonesia is seeing improvements, this is reflected in their national team performance, their latest FIFA ranking seeing the biggest climber in the updated rankings at 134th, up eight places.

The problems with violence stem back to 1965, a genocide targeted towards the ruling regime has never been forgotten, a genocide killing up to a million. This occurred when the nation was swaying away from a Marxist Socialist era to a more authoritarian New Order. The genocide was a way to quieten those opposed to the change. This reign under Suharto (President) lasted until 1998, just after football had become more a more disciplined and organised sporting practice in the country. How did this affect the football though? The simple answer is through ‘Ultras’. Groups of people with a die-hard admiration for their club, to support another club is seen as offensive and punishable.

There are thought to be a number of factors that lead to the violence, a lower standard of living is part of this, Indonesia is ranked 116th in the world for quality of living, education levels are low in the scales too and this can lead to a build-up of frustrations with football being the release. A mix of this with political ideologies and the mistrust of the PSSI (Football Association of Indonesia) helps us better understand why the fans in Indonesia are so angry. Too many times have there been reports of violence at football in the country but from the outside perspective not much seems to be changing.

The politics and quality of living are outside factors to the violence in the Indonesian football game, focusing more on football related issues there have been countless reports over the years of match-fixing scandals which just further add fuel to the fire. A nation of angered football fans go watch their teams to remove themselves from the mundanity of their day to day lives, but when it becomes uncovered that their beloved game is staged for the profit of football officials in the country that anger is heightened further. This was front of the news in the nation in early 2019 when Edy Rahmayadi resigned after Madura FC manager Januar Herwanto publicly came out and exposed the match fixing. You become less shocked at the violence when you start to understand all the different factors people have on the game in Indonesia whether they be related to the game or not.

A brief look at some of the past occurrences of violence and it’s too evident that something quickly needs to change. Just in October 2022 Kanjuruhan Stadium was the centrepiece for disaster. Arema played near rivals Persebaya Surabaya on the eastern side of Java, Arema succumbed to a three nil defeat and it’s safe to say the supporters did not take this well. Roughly 3000 supporters stormed onto the pitch attacking players, staff and officials. Police attempted to settle the onrushing crowds to no avail, that prompted the enforcement to deploy tear gas. What was supposed to settle down the crowd actually resulted in a catastrophe, fans rushed towards the exit in an attempt to escape the gas, but at the exit a crush formed, asphyxiating many.    

Three police officers were charged in 2023 for the use of tear gas, the police-general also announced a list of six suspects relating to the disaster including Arema’s head of security. The outcome of the case still will not give closure for the families of the reported 135 dead at the disaster or the reported 583 injured. The largest and most deadly football disaster in Asia. The relationship between supporters and police in Indonesia has been strained for many years now. In 2016 the police were accused by supporters of killing a 16-year-old Persija supporter, claims of police brutality marred this incident with thousands protesting with the human rights commission investigating the case.

So many reports of violence within Indonesia, unfortunately the violence does not stop here though, a dangerous and bitter rivalry with neighbours Malaysia has seen incidents arise in international games. Another incident in 2019, Malaysia fans visited Jakarta to support their nation in a World Cup Qualifying game only for Indonesian supporters to launch projectiles at Malaysian fans. This caused a halt in the game to sustain the trouble, and in the reverse fixture in Kuala Lumpur flares were thrown and it is reported that 41 Indonesian fans were arrested in relation to football violence.

So, what is the answer? How does the governing body combat this violence? Whatever the answer may be the sooner some kind of safety regulations are put into place the quicker the death toll will decrease. Perhaps an overhaul of the top members of the football federation could spark an improvement, less match fixing and less corruption will always go a long way to encourage fans not to be violent. The beautiful game, not so beautiful in this part of the world.

Written and Researched by BSc Cavan Campbell