Jakarta Casual

I feel sorry for people in Europe. There football gossip spins around which player is going where, which player is shagging whose missus and which coach is going to get the sack next. Dull and predictable stuff.

Not here though. Oh no, there’s so much nonsense going on, usually in dimly lit smoke filled rooms, that, if it were made into a movie, would be considered so over the top it would be a guaranteed flop.

South East Asians are big on face. I’m not Asian so of course it doesn’t apply to me. But even the locals only apply it selectively and when it suits their own personal situation. People here accept powerful positions, usually accompanied by a show of humility and carefully prepared quotes saying they don’t really want it but…, and when their charges are successful these suits are the first on the pitch, punching their arms in celebration and hugging everyone around them as if to see ‘I did all this.’ Their mug shot in the paper boosts their concept of face; their being associated with the winners’ boosts their face.

Unfortunately the converse doesn’t apply. When ‘their’ team loses they have their motorcycle escort outside the stadium ready to clear the riff raff and ensure the smooth journey home. They will not recognize they had any part to play in the failure even though they will claim they were involved in the success. Face eh?

Watch big games on TV in this region and you will see the cameras focus on the crowd. The bigger the game the more stuffed suits in armchairs. The less important the game, the more the focus on women in the crowd.

OK, after deciding I don’t have a clue how face works let’s move on to moving the goal posts mid way through the season. Like deciding what the players really need is another cup competition or increasing the league next season so how about tagging on a complex and tiring play off system at the end of the campaign to fleece the fans some more and, perhaps, favour a certain team over others.

Favouring teams in the league is of course nothing new but it usually comes with plenty of puffed up denials from the suits who seem reluctant to discuss the matter in great detail. There have been similar controversies in both Indonesia and Malaysia in recent years as well as the current nonsense in Thailand.

Then we have the apparent willingness of match officials to favour certain teams, usually with controversial penalties and the like.

It’s all so blatant yet while the press may kick up a fuss for a day or two the world carries on spinning, tigers are still poached and the game keeps being mismanaged.

It would be nice if people could appeal to FIFA. But then rather like Arsene Wenger, they have selective eyesight and given the way they select World Cup hosts they are not necessarily the ones to ask to intervene in unashamed malpractise going on under their umbrella.

And before anyone accuses me of going off on some colonial rant don’t get me started on the current farce that is the English Premier League where anyone with deep pockets can pick up a club and sod the consequences.

# posted by Me @ 4:14 PM