Sunday, April 29, 2012
It's An Indonesian Thing
Last Saturday I went to see Newcastle United play Stoke City. 26 quid a ticket but at least the game kicked off when it said it would. The kick off was clearly stated on the match ticket as well as the match programme, the Newcastle website, the Stoke website and the Premier League website.
Today I planned to go see Persipasi host PPSM at Ciracas Field in the official Divisi Utama. As far as I can make out, Persipasi don't have a website. Divisi Utama do and on their website they clearly stated the game was on Sunday.
So I went to the pub for a couple of pre match beers ahead of the game. Then I saw a tweet from Persipasi saying they had won 2-0. Ok, I've long suspected results in Indonesia have been fixed in advance, joke, but tannounced two hours before kick off?
Further enquiry revealed the game had been played yesterday!
If the supposedly official website can't get the day right then how the hell can Indonesian football expect itself to be taken seriously by anyone beyond the hard core who are in the loop?
Of course if I try to ask what happened, people will smile, shrug their shoulders and say this is Indonesia.
I don't accept that. It's a get out of jail card to excuse incompetence and it presupposes Indonesians are happy enough to accept this bullshit. They're not of course. Check out how many relatively wealthy locals follow foreign teams and the money they spend following those teams in all liklihood they will never see in the flesh. And then ask why none of their money is filling the coffers of the local game.
Brushing off incomptence as an Indonesian thing is an insult to Indonesians. Not me. Locals. Treat potential punters like shit, espevially those with a bit of cash to spend, and they will take their money elsewhere.
Be the change you wanna see in the others.
Today I planned to go see Persipasi host PPSM at Ciracas Field in the official Divisi Utama. As far as I can make out, Persipasi don't have a website. Divisi Utama do and on their website they clearly stated the game was on Sunday.
So I went to the pub for a couple of pre match beers ahead of the game. Then I saw a tweet from Persipasi saying they had won 2-0. Ok, I've long suspected results in Indonesia have been fixed in advance, joke, but tannounced two hours before kick off?
Further enquiry revealed the game had been played yesterday!
If the supposedly official website can't get the day right then how the hell can Indonesian football expect itself to be taken seriously by anyone beyond the hard core who are in the loop?
Of course if I try to ask what happened, people will smile, shrug their shoulders and say this is Indonesia.
I don't accept that. It's a get out of jail card to excuse incompetence and it presupposes Indonesians are happy enough to accept this bullshit. They're not of course. Check out how many relatively wealthy locals follow foreign teams and the money they spend following those teams in all liklihood they will never see in the flesh. And then ask why none of their money is filling the coffers of the local game.
Brushing off incomptence as an Indonesian thing is an insult to Indonesians. Not me. Locals. Treat potential punters like shit, espevially those with a bit of cash to spend, and they will take their money elsewhere.
Be the change you wanna see in the others.
# posted by Me @ 2:24 PM 
