We don’t need statistics to know that football is far and away the most popular sport in Indonesia (followed by badminton, yuck). Sure, we’re lousy when it comes to actually playing the sport, but we absolutely rule when it comes to having vibrant and colorful sets of football fans (as evidenced by the amazing support shown during Sunday’s Jenderal Soedirman Cup final at the Gelora Bung Karno Stadium in Jakarta).
Football fans are ubiquitous in Indonesia but they do fall into certain distinct categories. To help you recognize or even identify with a group, here’s a list of all the different types of football fans that we have spotted in Indonesia:
The foreign team(s) supporter
Let’s take Indonesian Liverpool FC fans as an example here. These guys can probably tell you the address of the club’s stadium, where and when the players train and who the club’s 8-year-old prodigy is. They can also sing every word to Liverpool’s anthem, ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’, by heart and very succinctly too.
Yet many of them can’t even speak a word of English.
But that doesn’t make them any less diehard fans of the club than those living in Liverpool. To them, being a fan is not a right – it’s a privilege, geography be damned. Hell, they’ll even wake up at odd hours of the day just to watch their team play on TV. Pure dedication.
Some foreign team supporters expand on that privilege by supporting one team from each country – say, Barcelona in Spain, Juventus in Italy, and PSG in France – apart from their own.
However, the lack of a geographical ties to a team means that some of these supporters go too far and only support the best team at any given time. These guys are called bandwagoners, and we don’t appreciate their kind here.
The local team supporter
These guys have a different philosophy to the foreign team supporters in that they believe one’s city of residence should dictate the team one supports. It’s a bit of a conservative stance in the increasingly globalized game, but this type of fan arguably has more fire in their belly when it comes to loving their team.
We have to feel slightly sorry for fans of the domestic game though, because the football on offer is just downright appalling. We’d never wish for anyone to be forced to sit through a full 90-minute Indonesian football match. That would drive anyone insane. Perhaps this explains the existence of…
The hooligans
Indonesian hooligans are as vandalizing and destructive as any of their European counterparts. They have been responsible for countless violent riots, road closures, innocent people getting hurt and public property getting damaged.
Seriously, fuck these guys.
The (replica) jersey collector
On the opposite side of the spectrum, you’ll find the jersey collectors. Authentic football jerseys are stupidly expensive, so these collectors often buy replicas from various online sellers on Instagram (just search #jersey[insert club here] to find the jersey you want) or, if they live in Jakarta, from Tanah Abang.
You can easily spot the most dedicated collectors as they tend to wear a football jersey just about everywhere aside from work – in malls, at the gym, eating out, in the movies, in bed, etc. Good thing for their wallets that most replica jerseys cost less than Rp 100K.
The pundit
You really wish you can shut these guys up. They are the ones who think they have the most insight into football and will spew detailed analysis about football matches as if they’re experts, despite the fact that they usually have zero playing or coaching experience.
That in itself may just be tolerable, but it’s really infuriating when they pick up the annoyingly cliched lingo of TV pundits (most of whom were never professionally involved in the sport either). Seriously, their so-called “in-depth” analysis often only goes as deep as “the only way for the losing team to come back is by attacking while keeping things tight at the back.”
The ‘nobar’-only crowd
The most chilled out and welcoming supporters you’ll come across. ‘Nobar’ is a portmanteau of ‘nonton’ (watch) and ‘bareng’ (together), meaning getting together with friends and/or strangers at cafés, bars, or specifically designated venues to watch a football match on TV.
The nobar-only crowd cares more about the people immediately around them than the events unfolding on TV. They’ll usually have a cup of coffee and a lit cigarette on them as they enjoy watching great football with great company.
The player supporter
The oddest of the bunch. These supporters only follow specific football players and not always necessarily the team he plays for. Last time we checked, football is a team sport, so perhaps their style of fandom is more appropriate for individual sports like tennis and golf (or badminton, yuck).
These supporters exist for their own unique reasons. Some may be enamored by specific footballers because of their Greek god-like physique (we know you immediately thought of Cristiano Ronaldo there), while others may like specific players for their individual skills, which, again, is totally missing the point.
But in the end, unless you’re a hooligan, it matters less about why you love football than the fact that you do. Let’s hope that one day Indonesian footballers can catch up to the high standards already set by the country’s fans.
