THE MYSTERY OF INDONESIAN FOOTBALL

The world has witnessed that Indonesian football team become the first Asian team qualified for the World Cup, to be precise in France in 1938. At that time, Indonesian knew football through the colonizers, the Netherlands. Under the flag of Dutch East Indies, Indonesian team was conquered 0-6 in the first round knockout by the Hungarian team, which finally emerged as runner-up. But after that, Indonesia only once went through the final round of the Olympic Games.

In Melbourne in 1956, Indonesian team could stop the Soviet Union draw without goals, before losing 4-0 in the rematch. At the level of Southeast Asia, Indonesian team had never become a champion in the AFF Cup (formerly known as the Tiger Cup). While in the ASEAN Games, Indonesia has only ever won the gold medal twice, in 1987 and 1991.

Indonesian football has long been a general discussion because in terms of potential, with a population of more than 220 million people, of course, finding 11 qualified football players is not a difficult thing.  However, until today, good Indonesian Football Team with high performance have not been gained.

From this phenomenon, many people speculate that the failure to form a good national team is mostly caused by internal factors, especially inside the Board of Football Association of Indonesia / PSSI. In fact, s far it is still a mystery that football in Indonesia remains disappointing. Why does football in Indonesia go in such a difficult way even though almost every village in Indonesia has at least one football field to support the improvement of this kind of sport?