Tuesday, July 02, 2024
Without Fans, Football Is Nothing - Or Is It?
I've gotta say, these crowd figures aren't the best, are they? Just Persija and Persib averaged more than 10,000 per home game.
There were some mitigating factors - there are always mitigating factors aren't there?
A number of clubs, including Persib and Bali United suffered from fan boycotts, ostensibly due to admission prices but it's funny how the stay-aways return when the team is winning.
The Kanjuruhan Tragedy continues to cast a long shadow over the domestic game. Arema, who once took 60,000 to Jakarta to see them win the league, averaged around 130 at their home games some of which were played in Bali. And in the wake of the tragedy where innocent fans were killed trying to escape tear gas, away fans continue to be banned.
Reigning champions PSM played their home games initially in Pare Pare, about three hours north of Makassar, before ending the season on a different island in Balikpapan where they ground shared a while with Borneo.
RANS Nusantara, one of a new breed of vanity clubs, averaged 54 per home game while another, Dewa United, managed 606! Hardly surprising, the game I was at, I saw nowhere selling tickets! Relegated Bhayangkara will grace Liga 2 with their 300+ fans - hard to believe they were Liga 1 champions in 2017!
Undoubtedly clubs like Persis, Persebaya, PSS and PSIS can pull in much bigger numbers as can Bali United, Persita and a settled PSM.
But recent years have seen so called die hard fans quick to call for boycotts at perceived slights rather than getting behind their team at every home game.
God knows, Indonesian clubs struggle with cash flow at the best of times. Surely fans need to be filling the stadium, if it's local(!) and doing their bit to support their team rather than calling for people to stay away for flimsy reasons?
And clubs of course need to do more to engage with supporters and persuade them to come week in, week out. It's daft that a professional league has clubs than genuinely don't care if anyone watches them or not!
