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Indonesian Football’s Derby Stories

Persija football supporters during a demonstration in Jakarta last weekend. (Antara Photo)

You couldn’t beat derby day in England, especially when it fell on a holiday or long weekend. Unfortunately increased crowd trouble saw the real big games retimed so that trouble would be minimized and another English tradition was ended.

Bank holiday games haven’t really caught on yet in Indonesia. For whatever reason many games still take place in the afternoon on work days. But this last weekend saw some juicy encounters with some local pride at stake.

It all started on Thursday when PSBK Blitar welcomed PS Mojokerto Putra for a Divisi Utama game, both sides hailing from East Java.

Twenty-four hours later and PS Bengkulu hosted PS Padang. Now I know these two colliding isn’t a couple of stops away by bus, but my Lonely Planet travel guide to Indonesia suggests buses connecting these two cities take up to 16 hours to complete the journey. For PS Bengkulu at least, Padang are their nearest neighbors on the island of Sumatra.

Things really heated up on Saturday with Persis Solo, who a week before had taken more than 1,500 fans to a game at Magelang, which this time played host to a large travelling support when PSS Sleman brought in an excess of 4,000, with most travelling by motorcycle convoy, for their second tier game, boosting the attendance to around 20,000.

In a uniquely Indonesian twist, Persipasi hosted Persikab in a West Java derby. Persipasi hails from Bekasi but their Patriot Stadium is being repaired while the nearby Tambun Stadium wasn’t considered good enough, lacking in basic facilities like changing rooms!

There was talk of the game’s being moved to Cibinong, which at least was in West Java but finally they decided to play the game in Ciracas, which is in South Jakarta. Instead of a healthy crowd of several thousand the game was seen by a few hundred including three metro mini bus loads of Persipasi fans who arrived late. Persikab, who play their home games in Soreang, had a few friends and family watching but that was about it!

No doubt many fans were put off by the uncertainty of where the game would be played.

Borneo pride was at stake on Saturday when Persiba Balikpapan hosted Persisam Samarinda. The tiny capacity of Persiba Stadium ensured only a shade over 4,000 could see the game and it was the tiny band of away fans who returned home with nothing, Persiba getting a late winner in a five goal thriller.

Karawang is a mere hop, skip and a jump from Jakarta. It also happens to be in West Java, which means it is a hotbed of Persib Bandung. Which was reason enough for authorities to relocate the Pelita Jaya vs. Persija game to the city of Solo. The threat of crowd trouble is a serious one. Back in 2007 Pelita Jaya was then playing its home games in Purwakarta, also in West Java and crowd trouble after the game saw several car and bus windows smashed in the car park.

Persija fans are used to travelling to Solo for home games and with a long weekend certainly a few thousand can be expected to make the familiar trip east, where they sleep rough outside the stadium, watch the game before returning home by train.

Think of this as a virtual bar where fans and pundits gather to talk football, from the controversial local pro leagues to European competition. The ball is round, and our bloggers can bend it. Readers are encouraged to offer their own take on anything football. The rules: keep it clean and between 300 to 800 words, and we reserve the right to referee (read: edit) the article. Oh, and any posting on American “football” will be reported to the authority for blasphemy. Send to: blogs@thejakartaglobe.com