History means nothing as Indonesia bid to host football World Cup
April 24th 2009 01:28
Although Indonesia has never gotten close to qualifying for a FIFA World Cup since their declaration of independence in 1949, the Asian nation suddenly finds itself as the darkhorse to host the world’s premier sporting event in 2018 and 2022, according to FIFA.
The footballing world has once again reached out its global hand to provide a country without much football history, with a chance to host the most important event on the footballing calendar.
Indeed Indonesia has never qualified for a World Cup, nor have they ever hosted a FIFA accredited tournament in their history.
The closest they came to a potential world cup birth was in the lead-up to the 1958 World Cup in Switzerland.
Indonesia eliminated China in the preliminary stages, but they then had to retire from competition. The Asian nation would have to wait fifteen years to play another world cup qualifying match.
Although they failed to make significant inroads in 1974, Indonesia still recorded a memorable win against rivals New Zealand, in what was perhaps a small stepping stone for things to come.
Indeed Indonesia’s greatest footballing moment came during their world cup qualifying campaign for the 1982 finals in Spain.
Led by Risdianto, who was arguably their greatest ever footballer, Indonesia managed to defeat major Oceania rival Australia 1-0 at the Utama Senayan stadium in Jakarta.
Although this victory did not grant Indonesia a world cup spot in Spain, it allowed Australia’s trans-Tasman rivals New Zealand to assure their world cup qualification.
Currently, Indonesia finds itself ranked 138th in the FIFA World rankings. Their journey to South Africa ended prematurely during the second phase of qualifying.
Indeed on the 18th of November 2007, Indonesia knew they would not participate in the first world cup hosted in Africa, due to an 11-1 loss suffered at the hands of Syria.
One only has to look at the amount of competition that Indonesia has participated in, to see why such one sided results are becoming a commodity.
Since their independence, Indonesia has only qualified for the 1959 under 20 World Cup in Japan, where they lost all three group games.
Before that, Indonesia qualified for the football tournament at the 1952 Olympics.
Despite the lean footballing history, Indonesia can look forward to a history making future.
The fourth most populated country in the world (with over 240 million people), has suddenly found its place on the footballing map in terms of hosting the premier sporting event on the planet.
Indonesia will once again face massive obstacles in their bid to host the 2018- 2022 world cups, with Spain-Portugal and Holland-Belgium also making strong bids.
Indeed other nations such as Australia, the United States, England and Russia will also flex their financial muscle in front of FIFA president Sepp Blatter to ensure possible World Cup hosting rights in the next few years.
Despite the presence of such powerful nations, Indonesia is also standing tall, eager to realise a dream that many will call impossible.
But one must remember, football is called the world game for a reason.
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