Wednesday, November 04, 2015
PSM Makassar - 100 Years Old
This year Birmingham City celebrate their 140th anniversary as a professional football club. It hasn’t
been much of a history with a second tier play off success, a couple of League Cups and a third tier title
taking pride of place in their trophy cabinet.
Sharing England’s second city with Aston Villa, Birmingham are still able to attract fans through the
turnstiles with an average of 16,000 watching their home games at St Andrews’ during the 2014/15
season.
To commemorate their 140th year, the club have introduced a one off badge and along with it a range of
souvenir merchandise, all of which of course is designed to encourage the supporters to dig deep in their
pockets and hand over their money to the club.
Given how many football clubs there are in England somewhere some club is celebrating something
every year and each club do what Birmingham do; produce a range of products promoting the
anniversary.
Closer to home, one Indonesian football club is celebrating its centenary this year. PSM Makassar from
the island of Sulawesi boast the distinction of being the oldest football club in the country and so
November 2nd sees football entered unchartered territory when it comes to remembering its past.
PSM were founded on 2nd November 1915 as Macassaarsche Voetbal Bund by a gentleman named
M L Hartwing, an employee of the Dutch government who at the time ruled the archipelago. The club
attracted a smorgasbord of players with Dutch, Chinese and local players on board and they certainly
had plenty of opponents with the likes of Prosit (founded 1909) made up of colonial Dutch players and
Bintang Priajoe (1910) featuring local players while in 1914 the Chinese community formed their own
club, Sportvereeniging Excelsior, which played at Lapangan Karebosi.
Little is known of MVB’s early days even though two names do live on, Sagi and Sangkala but don’t expect much in the way of You Tube clips or mementos to turn up on Ebay any time soon.
On 2nd July 1928, a touring Australian team, preparing for the 1928 Olympics in Amsterdam, stopped off in Makassar and earned themselves a moral boosting 2-1 victory in unfamiliar territory.
The Second World War saw Japan invade the Dutch Indies but there was still football and amid the
carnage a humble becak rider from Barru in South Sulawesi made the first tentative steps towards a career that led one pundit to describe him as the original ‘Special One’.
Rusli Ramang grew up playing sepak takraw, a mix between volleyball and football known for its
graceful and athletic movement getting a rattan ball over a net. He moved to Makassar after he got
married and soon came to the attention of PSM after scoring seven goals in one game for his then club
Persis All Sulawesi.
1n 1952 he was called up by the national team and on a tour around Asia taking in the Philippines,
Persis All Sulawesi.
1n 1952 he was called up by the national team and on a tour around Asia taking in the Philippines,
Hong Kong and Thailand, he netted an impressive 19 goals.
The 1950s were a glorious time to be a PSM fan. With Ramang rattling in the goals for fun they won
the Perserikatan (the nearest thing Indonesia had for a national league in the years before and after
independence) in 1957 and 1959 before adding back to back titles in 1965 and 1966 and a final one in
1992.
When professional football was introduced in 1994, PSM had one more sniff of success when they
were crowned champions in 1999/2000, their last piece of silverware.
With the title in their pocket, PSM set about conquering Asia in the Asian Club Championship, later to
become known as the AFC Asian Champions League. They started their campaign with a flourish,
defeating Vietnamese side Song Lam Nghe An 4-1 on aggregate in the First Round to earn a tie against
the Royal Thai Airforce.
The goals kept flowing as PSM battered the Thais home and away, winning 6-1 and 5-0 respectively.
The goal glut ensured PSM’s place in the quarter finals which they were chosen to host. Joining them
were Japan’s Jubilo Iwata, South Korea’s Suwon Samsung Bluewings and Shandong Luneng Taishan.
The goals continued to flow but unfortunately for the home fans, known as the Macz Man, they were in
the wrong goal.
They lost their opening game 3-1 against Shandong with the fans waiting until the 90th minute before
Suwandi Siswoyo gave them something to cheer about.
Their next game saw them take on Suwon and this time the fans didnt have so long to wait, legendary
striker Kurniawan Dwi Yulianto scoring on 35 minutes. Unfortunately its impact was the same as
Suwandi’s, little more than consolation as the Koreans had raced into a five goal lead in the opening 25 minutes! PSM went on to lose the game 8-1!
Jubilo Iwata coasted to a 3-0 win in the final game leaving PSM bottom of the group winless and
pointless; a sour tasting lesson but a harsh reminded of the gap between the best Indonesian football
can produce and the rest of Asia. How sad the lessons have yet to be learnt.
They were back in 2004 and 2005 but in a much enlarged competition they continued to struggle and failed to get out of the group stages on both occassion, winning just three games out of
12 over the two years.
And that has been pretty much it. Success has evaded PSM as the likes of Persipura and Sriwijaya
Palembang have dominated the domestic scene and the Eastern Roosters have failed to keep up.
In 2011 they backed the wrong horse when they opted to withdraw from the Indonesia Super League
and join the breakaway Liga Premier Indonesia when football split into two opposing camps.
Despite the lack of success they still remain a special club as Persib's Montengran striker Ilija Spasojevic found out during his spell in Makassar. He spent two seasons with the club and recalls '
Supporters are very loyal and they always support the club no matter what. When I think about my time there I have great memories, especially about my coach at that time Petar Segrt. He is definitely one of the greatest coaches I ever had. I am happy I was once part of such an amazing club with rich history.'
Supporters are very loyal and they always support the club no matter what. When I think about my time there I have great memories, especially about my coach at that time Petar Segrt. He is definitely one of the greatest coaches I ever had. I am happy I was once part of such an amazing club with rich history.'
When it comes to local legends though look no further than Syamsul Chaeruddin. Born in South Sulawesi, Syamsul is a 5.6 bundle of energy who began his career with PSM back in 2001 as a 17 year and apart from short stints in Persija and Sriwijaya has played for the club since then. In short one of those players who bleed for their club. He also impressed for the national team at the 2007 AFC Asian Cup when his tireless efforts in the midfield against the likes of Saudi Arabia and South Korea ultimately went unrewarded but received plenty of plaudits from the punters and pundits.
With the game reunified in 2014, PSM found themselves once more back in the ISL but they were
forced to play their home games in Surabaya, East Java as the authorities deemed their Andi Mattalatta
Stadium to not meet their guidelines. Home games were thus played in a cavernous 60,000 seater bowl
on the outskirts of Indonesia’s second city in front of crowds that rarely topped four figures.
The 2015 season saw them return home and a good start saw them defeat Persiba Balikpapan 4-0 and
draw 3-3 against highly fancied Sriwijaya before the season was stopped due to infighting between the
government and the football association that saw the government refuse to recognise the PSSI.
Compromise may be in the air and the ISL are hoping to start a new league in October. Until then
Makassar is hosting Gresik United, Persipasi Bekasia Raya and Pusamania Borneo in the President Cup.
The clock however is ticking towards their 100th anniversary and it doesn’t look like much, if indeed
anything, is being planned to celebrate the occasion. When Indonesian football clubs are forever
whining about the lack of cash they have it does seem a bit remiss nothing is being done to take
advantage of this unique event. Which is a shame really because surely having the oldest football club
in the region is surely something to be proud of?
# posted by Me @ 10:23 AM 
