A Balinese 10-year-old pictured with a sign condemning the deadly beating of a soccer fan at a game in Bandung, West Java on Sunday tugs hard at the heartstrings.
Persija Jakarta fan Haringga Sirla was killed at the hands of several Persib Bandung supporters outside of the Gelora Bandung Lautan Api (GBLA) stadium before the match up between the traditional rivals, Persija and Persib.
Football club allegiances aside, horrified fans of both teams have been quick to condemn the 23-year-old’s heartbreaking death. This includes 10-year-old Balinese Cikal Genre Socialista, who happens to be a Persib fan.
“If soccer is more important than life, then I’m willing for Indonesia to go without soccer,” reads a sign that Cikal held up at Bali’s Kapten I Wayan Dipta Gianyar Stadium on Monday night.
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“I know from my mother that there was a Jakmania (person) who died at GBLA,” Cikal told Merdeka. Jakmania is a Persija Jakarta supporter group.
Cikal, who is in the fifth grade at an elementary school in Denpasar, says he’s been “true Jakmania” from a young age.
“My mother and father invited me to watch Persija. We have watched them before in Malang and other cities. In Jakarta too, we’ve also been there,” Cikal told Merdeka.
Cikal says that although it was his mother that made the poster condemning the death of Haringga, he believes in the message.
“The poster was made by my mother. I brought it so there will be no more victims in Indonesian football. I had a chance to see the video when Haringga Sirla was beaten. It was scary,” said the boy, who aspires to one day play for the Indonesian national team.
Following the football fan’s death, footage has gone viral showing the violent moments that led up to it. One disturbing clip, that Cikal is probably referring to shows Haringga being savagely beaten to a bloody pulp by Persib supporters as they chant songs telling him to “go home”.
Since 2012, seven people from both sides of the Persija-Persib rivalry have been killed in violent attacks by rival supporters.
Haringga’s death, along with others in recent years, has prompted debate over whether or not Indonesia’s premier soccer competition should be allowed to continue.
