Thursday, March 15, 2007
Crowd trouble again
Last Sunday saw crowd trouble when Jakarta made the short journey down to Bogor Division. The locals are blaming the fanatical Jakmania for the trouble saying they brought too many fans! Apparently the agreement had been for 3,000 but many more had travelled. How many more? Attendance figures here are notoriously unreliable. The crowd given for this game was 20,000 while on Wednesday Bogor hosted Padang and attracted 6,000! So are we looking at some 14,000 travelling Jakarta fans? All through the game the rival fans taunted each other and after it apparently kicked off big time.
Fast forward to Wednesday and I take no delight in anticpating trouble in Tangerang. Neither apparently did some official on the Disciplinary Committee of the Indonesian FA. He had been hearing for several days before the fixture that the Jakmania were firming up for the trip. If what he says is true then perhaps his colleagues on the committee should be talking to him?
I saw some of the trouble from the Tangerang City Jakarta game and to be honest the excerts were laughable. One incident showed a couple of mobs about 20 or strong lobbing stones at each other, seperated by a couple of motorcycle policemen! The Jakarta fans edged forward and the Benteng Mania, as the Tangerang City support is known, were away on their flip flops. Other scenes showed police firing tear gas to disperse rowdy elements.
The Benteng Mania are going down the same road as the Bogor fans. They are blaming Jakarta for taking too many fans. The agreement was supposedly for 300 but if they really believed Jakarta were going to travel up the road days after taking 14,000 away and just fill of couple of angkots then I believe Ken Barlow is the next manager of England! OK it was a school day and the crowd given was just 10,000 but estimates give the figure as 10,000. Anyway, why did the Benteng Mania try to barricade the Jakmania inside the ground as was reported locally?
Jakarta have 3 more high profile away games this season. They return to Tangerang to do battle (deliberately) with their old foes Tangerang. Slightly further afield are Pelita Jaya and Bandung. Like it or not, good support or bad, Jakarta's fans will be marked as the local wannabes will take umbrage at the invasion of their town by the arrogant big city boys in orange. I said it a couple of days back and I'll say it again. A way needs to be found for such high profile games to be made all ticket.
Fast forward to Wednesday and I take no delight in anticpating trouble in Tangerang. Neither apparently did some official on the Disciplinary Committee of the Indonesian FA. He had been hearing for several days before the fixture that the Jakmania were firming up for the trip. If what he says is true then perhaps his colleagues on the committee should be talking to him?
I saw some of the trouble from the Tangerang City Jakarta game and to be honest the excerts were laughable. One incident showed a couple of mobs about 20 or strong lobbing stones at each other, seperated by a couple of motorcycle policemen! The Jakarta fans edged forward and the Benteng Mania, as the Tangerang City support is known, were away on their flip flops. Other scenes showed police firing tear gas to disperse rowdy elements.
The Benteng Mania are going down the same road as the Bogor fans. They are blaming Jakarta for taking too many fans. The agreement was supposedly for 300 but if they really believed Jakarta were going to travel up the road days after taking 14,000 away and just fill of couple of angkots then I believe Ken Barlow is the next manager of England! OK it was a school day and the crowd given was just 10,000 but estimates give the figure as 10,000. Anyway, why did the Benteng Mania try to barricade the Jakmania inside the ground as was reported locally?
Jakarta have 3 more high profile away games this season. They return to Tangerang to do battle (deliberately) with their old foes Tangerang. Slightly further afield are Pelita Jaya and Bandung. Like it or not, good support or bad, Jakarta's fans will be marked as the local wannabes will take umbrage at the invasion of their town by the arrogant big city boys in orange. I said it a couple of days back and I'll say it again. A way needs to be found for such high profile games to be made all ticket.
# posted by Me @ 7:02 PM 
