Two Teams Dropped from Indonesian League

By: Ian Rose | May 17th, 2008

Promotion / relegation is a great system. It ensures that the quality of a league stays strong by removing the worst each season and giving a chance to new blood. It also gives hope to lower-division fans that one day, their beloved side might just make the big time. But it takes more than winning. Most leagues have minimum requirements that need to be met before a team can rise into the top flight, like stadium size, financial security, etc. Unfortunately, there is no requirement on how much debt a club can have in, say, the Premier League, but I digress. Promoted teams only occasionally lose the place they earned over these formalities … it’s even more rare that a team assured a spot in the top flight is pushed out because of regulations, but that’s just what has happened in Indonesia.

Persmin Minahasa and Persiter Ternate were both in the plans for the new 18-team Indonesian Super Liga, but both got their walking papers this week when they were found unfit for one or more of the following criteria: Infrastructure, Legal, Finances, Sporting and Administration. That leaves two open slots in the top flight, and there are plenty of teams who will be licking their chops hoping for a second chance at going up.

The football structure in Indonesia needs a bit of explanation. Radically altering league formats has become something of a hobby for Indonesian FA officials, with fairly significant changes in 2004, 2005, and 2007. Now, for 2008, comes the Super Liga. In the new system, the 36-strong top flight, now separated into two regional divisions, is wittled down to 18, with the remaining 18 in the second-tier Premier Division.

On a purely nitpicking note here, can we please stop naming second-tier divisions with names that, literally, mean “top”? It makes some sense in the case of the English Championship, because it is the top tier of the Football League, and the Premier League is separate, but in this case, it’s just confusing.

Ternate’s forced relegation may have national team ramifications as well, since defender Fandy Mochtar is on the national side, or at least was before they were eliminated from World Cup qualification in the second round of AFC qualifying. Looking at the scoreline, an 11-1 defeat to Syria over two legs, perhaps a few changes in defense wouldn’t be a bad idea. In any case, hopefully both Ternate and Minahasa can get their accounts in order and at least have the chance to be promoted based on their football. At the very least, that logo is top class. The simple football floating above the swimming ray (Ternate’s) is quite nice.