Jakarta Casual

Ok, so the headline is a bit tongue in cheek but someone has come out and talked about the Independence Cup, a competition much trumpeted by the Transition Team as how Indonesian football will be cleaned up in the future.

Ok so not many teams have entered so far. Apparently organisers wanted 30. At the moment? No one is saying for now though if just 12 or 14 fulfill the conditions the competition will proceed.

Ok so what are the criteria? Well, you will be relieved to know those fine fellows at BOPI will be the ones who decide who can enter and who can't, oh how they must enjoy all this power that has fallen in their laps. And yes, with all this responsibility they now have a new website explaining what they do...the website is all in Indonesian but comes complete with an English motivational sentence from some guy I had to google.

Ok one of the clubs being rumoured to enter are Persibo. They were kicked out of professional football a couple of years back once the old PSSI returned and replaced the new PSSI to become the latest PSSI before the PSSI were unrecognised by the government. Get all that? Anyways, you may recall Persibo from their AFC Cup adventures but if you have forgotten here you can recall their humiliating adventures.

Ok so how will it work? No one knows yet but it seems the idea is the competition will be based in a number of cities; Lampung, Medan, Serang, Bangkalan and Bali. And, umm, that is probably about it. A start date is 24 July but don't go booking any flights or hotels just yet.

Ok, with the competition being backed by the government it is unlikely there will be any issues with releasing the necessary permits and security clearances, unlike the Java Sunrise Cup which was cancelled because the security officials would not release the permits.