The last Saturday was (maybe) very much different day for the guys serving in the BLI (Badan Liga Indonesia). The long awaited Indonesia Super League has its debut day with the clash between defending champions and Raja Isa’s side Persipura. I won’t be talking about the match, you know how the game is played here in Indonesia. But the league itself is more interesting to discuss. Yeah starting from the day, we have the brand new Indonesian Super League (of course sponsored by cigarette company, who else?). If you are one of those who pay some attention to the league, just like me, it’s like waiting the whole year in doubt whether the league will be played as planned or not. Last season (I don’t know it was 2007 or 2007/2008, okay forget it!), the competition has one of biggest time. You name the reasons, outstandingly long season, riots, suspensions, final-round venue-change, and well Sriwijaya’s double winner at last, I guess. After that final night in empty Jalak Harupat, the fans have to wait so long for another actions of their favorite local teams. And for BLI this is the moment for moving the league to the right direction. Actually the talk about the new league has been around since 1 or 2 years ago, but last year BLI made sure that the season would be the last time for the journey of the traditional league. Now things are really about to be changed (for the country’s highest division).
The league is actually nothing new, we have already had a unified league like those played in Europe in 2003 and 2004, but for some silly business in Senayan, the league was changed (again) to its old-school 2 regions-competition. Then what’s so interesting about the ISL? Some new regulations are implemented, specific stadium criteria, financial requirement, youth team, and other legal aspects.
I don’t know much about those legal requirements, perhaps I have to arrange a meeting with the league regulator to know deeper about the matter. But let’s talk about things bare eyes can see. The stadiums now look nicer. Yes it’s not comparable to the stadiums accommodating the world’s finest play in EPL or Serie A, but it’s really nicer than before. I have to remind you, here we use the Indonesian standard, that the stadium is cleaner, the lines on the field can tell you the ball is out or not, the bumpy-less pitch (not that kind of Desso grass of Emirates stadium though, it’s more like your backyard grass, but it’s better!), the lights that can help you play at a Sunday night are all good points I can see from the young competition. In some way it helps to improve the quality of the game. I watched Persib beat Persela by 5-2 yesterday and the game was really flowing, the ball can be passed from one side of the field to the other smoother and faster. And this time the regulator is pretty strict (oh finally). Those who don’t have the required stadium like PSMS or Persita are forced to find other ground to host their home game.
What else? You get it right! No more those big space-consuming Djarum logo on the jersey of the players. Teams now can put on their sponsor’s logo on the chest of the players. Sounds good, doesn’t it? Teams can get more money to pay the players and finance the trip from Medan to Jayapura. So where Djarum’s money goes? Clearly, they have some billboards just at the edge of the fields. The logo is now on the right arm of the jersey, just like those in major European competitions. It’s smaller with the new ISL logo and Djarum name in the bottom. It’s not the best logo you can find around, indeed, it’s not good enough to my standard. It reminds me to any competition related to Africa, or any other African thing. I don’t mean to be racist (I’m not one of those). But it’s really strange, it has the ball (it should), but it also has red, yellow, and green on it. Come on people, it’s football, not a dangdut competition. However the design has been decided by some sort of contest, take it as it is. Not suitable enough I guess to enhance the image of the league (I would prefer a stronger simpler combination with only two colors, which can make the logo easier to remember, like those of NBA or MLB). But surely it has an appeal to the game’s fan base, to middle and low income population of the nations. And well at least now the competition has its own logo, not that PSSI logo with the “padi dan kapas thing”.
We have talked about the stadium and also some sponsor and marketing things. Next, it’s about the broadcast, unfortunately, it’s still ANTV. I can’t tell you much. If you watch the live (or even recorded) game on TV, you know what I’m into. So imagine a set on a studio for broadcasting football game. What comes to mind? No, you’ll see more than two seats in there (it’s really not Ricky Jo and Tommy Welly business). The set has four (or sometimes five seats). Yes, four or five! One will be the host (let’s remember, I guess his name is Rendra Sujono or something), two ladies (who actually likes shopping at that time than being in studio talking about football, yeah ‘cause they just don’t get what the sport is all about, but still working for some money), and of course our lovely commentators (mostly Binder Singh and Vennard Hutabarat). These people talk about football in the broadcast and they seem to understand one or two about it. But, for real, to see four or five in a studio discussing about football is a scene you can only find here in Indonesia.
So we have come to the end of the day and we should have the summary for today’s lessons. The league is not perfect, it’s obvious. But it’s been much better that its previous edition. Anything else? I guess we have seen someone contributing big for the founding of the new baby. No. It’s not gonna be Nurdin. He deserves credit for his ability to control an organization from the prison. Djoko Driyono is the man. He has the vision, the plan, the knowledge about the industry and has done the right thing. He just lacks people who are just smart enough in PSSI, but it’s fine. Future seems so bright. But the journey has just begun for the new-born Super League. I wonder what might happen next. Just wait and see.
[...] it started last year. I wrote my first post on Blogspot. It was ISL, Hope for the Lousy League, my first try after Fajar persuaded me to have a blog. Not satisfied, I wrote another post, [...]