Jakarta Casual

For many years no football club would go near Indonesia. Scared off by terrorism and a perceived political instability overplayed by foreign embassies instead they concentrated their South East Asian efforts on the more visitor friendly countries of Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand.

Now, however, it appears Indonesia is once again open for business and everyone wants a slice of the pizza. Hot on the heels of Barcelona announcing they would be opening up academies here comes new that Inter Milan, due to visit the country later in May, would also be opening academies to tap into the expanding middle class.

With the likes of Arsenal and Liverpool already in the market it appears Europe’s elite clubs have found a new promised land and are falling over themselves to get established ahead of their rivals.

These academies are the language schools of football. Kids go in young, go through a number of levels and age groups and come out as, umm, footballers? Well, no, not quite. No amount of running round a football field in the newest boots wearing the latest replica shirt is going to turn a sparrow into a bird of paradise and parents throwing money at it won’t change that.

Of course no one is promising that little Johnny is going to come out of an academy playing like Lionel Messi. But parents, parting with hard earned cash, will be entitled to ask what they will be getting for their money. And the truth is not much really.

Every club that has dipped their toe in the Indonesian pool has talked about potential just as every multi-national looking to invest here. The potential of a burgeoning middle class with higher disposable incomes. They coo about Indonesia’s potential in football and point to a vibrant domestic league and sell out crowds at the Bung Karno as their proof.

Too often though they overlook the adjective that usually precedes the noun. Unfulfilled.

But what role do they envisage their academy playing in turning that around? It is very unlikely Indonesian football will find a Messi or a Ronaldo going through the ranks of a branded football academy. Instead they’re more likely to find kids with well off parents and a few bob to spend having their offspring live out their footballing fantasies. These kids from the top schools will in most cases have had their futures marked out for them by protective parents. Let the kids play football now because in the future they will be working in an air conditioned office, not getting drenched playing on cattle grazing surfaces with fans pelting rocks at them.

The European clubs of course care not one jot about that. Yes, it would be a marketing boon if a player does go through the academy and goes on to make a career professionally but the odds are sky high. Indonesia’s football future are playing barefoot in the kampongs far from the slick EPL or Serie A clubs’ watchful eyes. They are training with their local team, their local Persi- or learning the trade at one of many SSBs (Sekolah Sepak Bola or Soccer Schools) that are littered haphazardly around the country.

When the big clubs talk about developing the game that is where they should be focusing their efforts, not on ticking mummy and daddy’s list of must do’s for their kids.

Academies are cheap, low cost, low risk ways of getting the brand out there and that is their main purpose.

There are other ways clubs could give something back, to really help develop the game in their chosen backyard. They could, for example build a stadium or relay a turf. Even better. They could take some of the brightest young coaches in the league and place them alongside their own coaches working on youth development or with the reserves. Give the coaches a chance to earn new ideas and see how other countries go about improving the talent pool.

Won’t happen of course. Improving coaches’ ability is nowhere near as sexy as having a soccer school with your name getting regular mentions in the media. And even if one club did actually break the mould and try something so revolutionary it could have a detrimental effect on the coaches themselves.

Imagine spending 12 months with Ajax, Arsenal or Auxerre and returning to Indonesia brimming woth enthusiasm and ideas only to over ruled by a kretek smoking buffoon in batik telling you who which player to sign, who to substitute or a 14 kilometre run everyday does improve a player’s stamina.

# posted by Me @ 1:22 PM 0 comments

Etoile FC were allowed to play two seasons in the S-League despite having failed to provide the full $500,000 banker's guarantee that foreign clubs have to put up, it is believed.

That is one reason why the club, facing debts 'a few times more' than the $100,000 that has been reported, has been struggling to repay money owed to players from last season.

The Football Association of Singapore (FAS) normally requires foreign clubs to furnish a $500,000 performance bond when they join the league. The money can then be drawn upon if a club defaults on payments - from the rental of stadiums to player salaries. If a club pulls out of the S-League, like Etoile did on Jan16, the money will then be returned.

But the French club struggled to put up the banker's guarantee when it arrived in January 2010. The league's then-director of finance Tan Bong Him said at the time: 'All new clubs have the option to furnish their payments by instalments. Both Etoile and Beijing (Guoan Talent), have met their first instalment obligation and they have till March to complete their final payment.'

SOURCE - The Straits Times

COMMENT - First the former CEO of Etoile is appointed deputy CEO of SLeague. Then a newspaper discovers he is bankrupt back in France, his home country. The FA announce one of their investigations they love so much, the ones where they throw hefty fines, deduct points and talk tough at clubs and players, before announcing that in fact he is not bankrupt and will make an announcement 'soon'.

In Singapore business school speak 'soon' is synonymous with Indonesia's jam karet.

Anyway now we find this. That Etoile had not paid any bond up front like other foreign teams must do. The really funny thing, and I mean rolling on the floor kicking your legs in the air, tears flowing down your eyes hilarious, is that Etoile must make their final payment by March!

Or what? Whatcha gonna do? Kick em out the league? They've already gone. Fine them? They have no money.

You know what? A bit more transparency from the offices of the Football Association might go a long way. Because the way things are it appears everyone there is in damage control mode. Delay follows delay, obfuscation mixes with opaqueness and what you end up with is the image of people rushing round trying to hush things up and protect themselves rather than actually getting busy with running the game of football.

# posted by Me @ 8:06 AM 0 comments

The idea of football clubs being little more than a license to be haggled over like a flapping fish at a riverside market before sun up is a difficult one for many to comprehend but it does seem an acceptable practice in this part of the world; as long as the right people are doing it of course.

Football clubs in England are licensed by the Football Licensing Authority but the idea that say Rotherham United could go out and buy an English Premier League license from Everton and take their place among thebig boys is a bit too much to take; though Everton fans would have a lot to say about being taken over by a team in red.

Nobody though in these parts seem to bat an eyelid. I guess when promotion/relegation issues are decided based upon guanxi, connections, then who can get excited about mere horse trading among other friends?

The current Indonesia Super League leaders, Sriwijaya, started life as Persijatim East Jakarta before switching to the city of Solo. The government of South Sumatra then bought the license and rebranded the club Sriwijaya to match local heritage and no one thought about any fans the club still had. In Jakarta or Solo!

Thailand is the hub though for this kind of nonsense. Bangkok Glass, for example, took over Krung Thai Bank while Pattaya United took their place from Bang Phra.

Trying to keep tracks of these maneuvers requires a form of mental gymnastics that would appeal to lawyers, serial loop hole finders and other pedants but leave the vast majority of us feeling cold and somewhat ignorant. What about the football we whine pathetically.

A team called PEA won the Thai Premier League back in 2008. Two years later a provincial godfather decided he wished to get involved in Thai football, which was invented in 2009, and having been banned from politics had the time, and cash, to make his wish come true.

He brought PEA to Buriram, re named them Buriram PEA and set about investing heavily in players and facilities, much as Sriwijaya had done. This gentleman is not accustomed to coming second, a careful political career saw him usually on the winning side no matter who won, so of course the team won the league in 2011.

Was it PEA’s second title in four years? For any traditionalists yes but this guy writes rules. He doesn’t worry about how a Thai Rothmans Football Yearbook would record the triumph. As far as he, and the legions of ‘new’ fans are concerned it was ‘their’ first title. There was nothing before 2010 when PEA headed north east.

Buriram’s other team, called Buriram, are in the hands of the same family and they won Division One at a canter meaning Buriram could well have a clean sweep on domestic trophies if PEA, sorry, Buriram PEA win the League Cup to join the TPL and the FA Cup in their newly constructed trophy cabinet.

So we have two teams from this provincial north eastern town? Well, no. the PEA part of the champions has been sold on, and what’s left has merged with the newly promoted team to form Buriram United. What was left? God knows and even he would have difficulties understanding the legalese and small print. PEA arrived, won the league, moved on yet left something behind?! What are they, a bloody cuckoo?

PEA, apparently, were sold off to the southern city of Songkhla who despite finishing fifth in Division One will go up a division. Who needs promotion and relegation, they’re just quaint old traditions and not necessary in the modern age when you can buy and sell among your friends as the mood suits. And Songhkla’s place will go to another team that gets to forsake the old way of doing things.

Is it a coincidence that one of the largest attendances in Thai football last season, which ain’t finished yet but that’s another soap opera featuring the same cast, was between Songkhla and Buriram played down south. Over 35,000 fans turned up out of a population of 154,000…Blackburn Rovers would cut their hands off for those kind of crowds!

Arsenal controversially stayed in Division One after the First World War thanks to the sterling efforts of Sir Henry Norris but even he must be looking down at the Thai way of doing things and nodding appreciatively, knowing he is watching masters at work.

Buriram United now claim Buriram PEA’s place in the AFC Champions League even though they have yet to play a game while PEA, now in Songkla? Didn’t they win the TPL? Shouldn’t they be in the ACL? Is this saga available on DVD yet?

In most countries, admittedly outside of south east Asia, they have Football Associations who rule on this kind of stuff. Thailand? I’ve said many times Thai football has failed to build on the boom it experienced in 2009, just like they failed to build on the Dream Team of 1994, and instead have just sold the game for cheap votes and increased exposure. The FA sits on the sidelines rubberstamping agreements made beforehand knowing that the phu yai they have access to are trumped by the phu yai arrayed against them.

It’s just business as usual of course. Football in these parts isn’t run for the prestige of the game or nation with the possible, occasional, exception of Malaysia. In these parts football is run for the glory and egos of individuals. The tawdry events in Thailand have nothing to do with the game many of us love so much but wrapped in the semblance of legality and hidden in the cloak of opacity there is little anyway in authority can do. And even if they wanted to do something, chances are they wouldn’t. Not for the first time the projection of power trumps logic and common sense.

Until this antiquated, feudalistic way of doing things is cast aside it is unlikely we will ever see a South East Asian nation make an impact on the Asian Cup, the World Cup or the Olympics. All the fine talk about passion and potential will continue to be the fine talk of dreamers and theorists.

# posted by Me @ 7:34 PM 0 comments

FOOTBALL ACADEMIES: LOGGING IN THE FOOTBALL FOREST

Recently the PSSI has adopted a Youth Development Program. Timo Scheunemann, Indonesia’s undisputed authority of youth development is appointed Director of this Program. It is a system of regional scouting of young promising players and bringing them into an intensive program of further development of their skills. It is expected that in a few years those academies will start to supply better than average players who will improve the Indonesian National Team selections.

Perhaps this will be the case but is it the solution for development of football quality in Indonesia? Will the quality of football in the stadiums across the country improve? According to the PSSI Plan the Football Academies are considered to be the solution for the quality standard in the country. Everybody points at the extreme high level of players that are delivered from academies of Arsenal and Ajax. Indeed, the academies of these clubs produce world class players but the question is: why?

In Europe football is organized in clubs. In the Netherlands there are almost 4000 clubs where young footballers can join to learn and play football. Every neighbourhood in the cities and every village in the country has its own club. Children join those clubs when they enter the age of primary school: 6 years, sometimes even younger. At least once per week they have a training session and every Saturday they play a match in locally or regionally organized competitions. They develop technical skills but also tactical and mental qualities from the tender age of 6.

Decisive factor in their development is the voluntary trainer who teaches them the first steps on their way to become a footballer. He has a trainer’s diploma or has played competitive football himself. In the Netherlands the first diploma is JVT (Youth Football Trainer), followed by TC (Trainer/Coach) 3, 2 and 1. The first diploma is sponsored by the club and the Football Association and is free for everybody who is willing to train young players between 6 and 10 years old. Each child has the opportunity to develop his or her skills under qualified guidance.

Professional football clubs have academies who scout the best talents from their region. They have an extensive network of tipsters and scouts. In many cases the small clubs tip their neighbouring professional club that they have an extraordinary talent who should be seen by the scouts. As a result of those qualified trainers at the lowest levels the academies can select players who are already prepared to a high level in their home clubs.

Of course, not all of the talents invited to the academies will reach the highest level. Most don’t reach the first team and will go back to their former local amateur club, adding quality to their squad. Some don’t reach the level of the national team but make a more than decent living from a professional club and add to the overall quality of the competition, pushing the top-end talents even further.

Take for example Irfan Bachdim. He played in the youth department of an amateur side together with the other kids from his neighbourhood. He appeared to be better than average and the scouts of Ajax offered him a place in their famous academy. But alas, after 3 seasons he was not good enough to reach to the top and our teenager went back to the amateurs. There he was one of the best again and the scouts of FC Utrecht asked him to play for them. Again he could not break through to the first team. He moved to second tier club Haarlem. This club went bankrupt and Irfan was without a club. Then he tried his luck in Indonesia and was offered an opportunity to play for Persema. The rest is history.

Why was Irfan in Holland rejected two times at Eredivisie level and is a star and topscorer in Indonesia? Because he has been groomed from a very young age in a much higher level football environment. He has learned what is important at training and in the match; he understands the system that the coaches want him to play in. He has developed technical skills that are important in the match. He developed tactical insight and mental skills. He knows that not circus acts count, but effectivity.

Persema Malang had this year 77 new applications to choose from. All of them could juggle the ball brilliantly. With difficulty the trainers could find 4 possible talents, the rest was absolutely useless. They lacked even the most basic elements.

Logging the best from the forest is not a solution to lift Indonesia from the bottom of the world rankings. Quality has to improve from the roots up. That means that every child with healthy limbs should be offered development of his potential. Only then scouting for the real gems will bare fruit. The best of nothing is still not much. Only those who stand out from high quality are talents worth scouting for.

In my opinion the budget for Youth Development should be spent on develoment of the grassroots. Give every child the opportunity to learn the basic skills of football and then the best of them will be worthy of an academy. As long as there is no structure of youth development on local and village level, the best are still far from good. The PSSI would do better to start educating he educators: the well meaning people who take care of training of children of under ten years old. Only when scouts can select from many proven talents, an academy can be usefull.

# posted by Me @ 5:16 PM 8 comments

It doesn’t matter how honourable intentions may be at the Football Association of Singapore they always seem to put their foot in their mouth big time. The latest faux pas comes with the news that their newly appointed SLeague deputy CEO, and former Etoile chairman, is a declared bankrupt back in his home country of France and banned from running a business there for five years.

So what does he do? Up sticks to Singapore, sets up a football team, gives them big plans then jumps ship half way through their second season in the SLeague with allegations of unpaid salaries and large debts being left behind.

Now this.

His appointment was controversial in the first place and has led to Etoile pulling out of the competition; another poorly handled move from both sides.

Let’s look at perception. Businessman racks up debts he can’t pay off at home and does one to the tropics. He sets up a football club, promises all sorts of things that aren’t delivered, then quits. Next, he pops up at the SLeague tasked with turning a moribund game around.

With his track record that was always going to be a tough sell; perhaps one reason why people kept so quiet ahead of the appointment. Now financial impropriety is thrown into the mix.

I live in Indonesia where no most private companies refuse to get involved in the local game because they are unsure where their money will go. Actually, they know full well where the money will go, hence their reluctance to part with it.

With the SLeague due to begin in a couple of weeks time this is another headline the game could well do without.

# posted by Me @ 8:53 AM 0 comments