PSSI to improve competition system for Indonesian league

JAKARTA (JP): The All-Indonesian Soccer Federation (PSSI) held a one-day seminar at Hotel Indonesia on Saturday to discuss the implementation of a competition system for the Indonesian league.

The seminar was attended by chairman of the National Sports Council (KONI) Wismoyo Arismunandar, PSSI chairman Agum Gumelar, and secretary-general of the Southeast Asia Football Federation (AFF) Dato' Paul Mony.

A final decision on the competition system to be chosen for the league will be decided at PSSI's 32nd national congress, scheduled to be held after the June 7 general election.

Agum said the number of clubs competing in the Indonesian league should be limited in order to save time and money for staging Indonesian league playoffs (Ligina).

He said the numbers of clubs contending the main and first divisions had always changed because they faced relegations or were dismissed for financial reasons.

"The competition has always outlived the period. It disturbs national team preparations for competition at the sub-regional, regional and international levels," the three-star general said.

He suggested each province should be represented by one club or team, with one extra club from the Indonesian Military (TNI) or the police.

Indonesia has more than 300 amateur clubs throughout the regencies, and five professional clubs (Pelita Bakrie, Barito Putra, Gelora Dewata, Petro Kimia and Pupuk Kaltim) which compete in Ligina's main, first and second divisions.

The playoffs changed their system before switching to the current system called Ligina, in which amateur and professional clubs fight their way to the main division to earn the Presidential Cup.

Ligina has been staged five times annually since 1994. In 1997, it was abruptly disturbed at the end of the preliminary round for security reasons.

Agum suggested PSSI regional offices be given more autonomy. He said PSSI should offer "title sponsors" to each club so they could find their own contributors.

Dato' Paul Mony said a country should consider the number of clubs, the numbers of competitions held to improve the players' performance and the period of competition.

He cited Malaysia as an example, saying it had arranged the schedule for competition in order to produce quality players who played not only in the regional clubs but also the national team.

He said the Malaysian Soccer Association had developed long- term mutual cooperation agreements with its sponsors to help finance the clubs.

"There's no one certain format which must be followed by each country. Don't follow Malaysia or other countries' systems. The first priority is whether your competition will attract a crowd," he said. (ivy)