Not the Netherlands. Not Japan. Not Timor Leste. Indonesia’s biggest sporting rival is undoubtedly Malaysia.
Like Indonesia, what we now call Malaysia would not have existed without colonialism. Different states sharing no previous political unity were brought together in the face of colonialism. Malaya (before it became Malaysia) emerged Continue reading
When you study the history of Indonesia to try and predict which nation contemporary Indonesians would see as their natural rivals on the Football field, there are 3 clear candidates.
The first would be the Netherlands. The Dutch were the foreign nation that Continue reading
Look at the league table in any league unfamiliar to you and you tend to see similar club name suffixes and prefixes. But it is in the Indonesian Liga 1 & 2 that the names are perhaps most similar. Persegres, PSS Sleman, PSIM, PSM, Persija, Persela, Persib, Persiba, Persibat, Persebaya, Persipura, Perseru, Persis. Confusing, right? One Indonesian club with a more distinct name is Sriwijaya FC.
Sriwijaya FC is the club of Palembang, the large inland port city Continue reading
Guangzhou Evergrande at home to Chongqing Lifan was next on our CSL itinerary. Evergrande, the current dominant force in Chinese Football, were massive favourites at the Tianhe Stadium in the modern city centre (and won 2-0). Tickets purchased and in we went to explore and take photographs prior to the ground filling. We were next to the Ultra block, so we took the liberty of going beneath it to photograph the banners and sector flags with little opposition to do so. One banner caught our eye quickly; “WE Continue reading
From Boothferry To Germany 