Soccer becomes a sport that attracts many Indonesian people. However, the zest of soccer has to collide with a fact that Indonesia National Team (Timnas) barely scored any achievements in the senior level. To overcome the problem, all local governments across Indonesia possess a crucial role to generate eminent soccer players. The local governments should conduct an early coaching, develop routine and tiered competitions, and build a good cooperation with the Soccer Association of Indonesia (PSSI).
Vice Chairman of Provincial Association of PSSI of Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta (DIY), Wahyudi Kurniawan, S.IP. stated that local governments have great contribution to conduct an early coaching for soccer athletes. “We always hope that local governments can cooperate with us,” uttered Wahyu at a talk show on political soccer entitled “the Governance of Local Soccer and the Contributions of Local Governments” on Thursday (18/4). The talk show was initiated by the Governmental Study Students Association of Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta (Komap UMY) at K.H. Ibrahim Building of UMY.
Wahyudi informed that soccer training facilities in Indonesia are pretty inadequate to support the emergence of young seedlings. Therefore, the participation of governments to build and nurture soccer infrastructures is urgently needed. “Infrastructures become one of the very significant aspects, for example infrastructure in Sleman Regency. In Sleman, we have approximately 200 soccer fields, but only ten percent are feasible to access. The problems come in many forms as inappropriate size of fields, ruggedness of fields, and ugly and thick grasses of the fields. We hope that local governments can cooperate with us,” maintained Wahyudi.
Moreover, Vice Rector for Cooperation and International Affairs and manager of Hizbul Wathan Soccer Association of UMY, Prof. Dr. Achmad Nurmandi, M.Sc uttered that a good condition of federation can perform proper supervision to professional and amateur soccer clubs. Besides, the implementation of routine and tiered competitions can be a good means to build the young soccer players. Nurmandi continued, “Soccer usually possesses a good federation governance to foster all the clubs. Furthermore, the routine and tiered competitions can be used as a means to foster young soccer players.”
At the end of discussion, a lecturer of Department of Communication Science of UMY, Fajar Junaedi, S.IP., M.Si. conveyed that local government plays a vital role to support the development of Indonesian soccer. The local government can collaborate with provincial and regional federations. “If we want to build an onward soccer, the government should invest through the coaching program, not through the political agendas we usually notice in the media,” ended Fajar.
