Southeast Asia Indonesia

Arema Considers DISSOLVING After Protests

The management of troubled Liga 1 Indonesia club Arema FC have mulled the possibility of DISSOLVING the club altogether after the Singo Edan were made national pariahs following last year’s Kanjuruhan Tragedy.

Arema and their Aremania fanbase were initially at the receiving end of widespread sympathy once news of the stadium crush at the Kanjuruhan reached all corners of the globe, however public perception towards the Singo Edan have changed significantly following a 2-hour long video posted by Persebaya Surabaya on their YouTube account, which depicted the tragedy from the Bajul Ijo‘s perspective. The video depicted the Aremania being overly hostile and openly threatening Persebaya players during their 3-2 win away at the Kanjuruhan, even swarming the armored vehicle carrying the Persebaya camp out of the stadium as well as attacking the surrounding vehicles.

The video subsequently painted both Arema and Aremania in a negative light, meaning that the Kanjuruhan Tragedy was not only the fault of law enforcement but also the fault of both the club and its supporters in general. Club CEO Iwan Budianto and Aremania head honcho Yuli Sumpil – two men who were held as equally as accountable as the police officers serving that fateful night – subsequently vanished from the public eye following the release of Persebaya’s point of view of the tragedy, although Iwan did recently came out to rule himself out of contention for any position within the Football Federation of Indonesia (PSSI) in their upcoming Extraordinary Congress this February.

Anger within the Indonesian football fraternity reached fever pitch once it was decided that Arema would continue their Liga 1 campaign with sanctions that amounted to a mere slap on the wrist compared to the scale tragedy, with the club being forbidden to play in Malang for the remainder of the campaign. Arema’s next home games would also have to be held at least 250 kilometers away from Malang, as well as being played behind closed doors.

Arema’s decision to continue the season came off as unsympathetic towards the victims of the tragedy, which led to supporter groups all over Indonesia declaring that they won’t allow Arema to hold their home games within their territory.

The Singo Edan had explored the options of holding home games in Bali, Magelang, Bantul, Semarang, and Boyolali, but with the exception of Bali, every supporter group within the aforementioned regions had voiced their displeasure towards Arema’s plans of holding their remaining home games there.

Liga 3 Yogyakarta side PS Hizbul Wathan UMY led the Bantul resistance towards Arema playing their home games there, while supporters of PSIS Semarang and Persebi Boyolali were against the idea of Arema playing their home games at the Jatidiri Stadium and the Kebogiro Stadium respectively. Bali, on the other hand, lacked any capable infrastructure to host the Singo Edan as the Kapten I Wayan Dipta Stadium, the Kompyang Sujana Stadium, and the Ngurah Rai Stadium were all undergoing renovation work for the upcoming FIFA U-20 World Cup.

All the negative publicity surrounding Arema affected their on-pitch performances, with Javier Roca’s men suffering four consecutive defeats in recent weeks – 2-0 at the hands of Madura United, 1-0 at the hands of Bhayangkara FC, 1-0 at the hands of PSIS, and 1-0 at the hands of PSS Sleman. Moreover, due to their inability to secure a temporary home ground, Arema had to postpone their home matches against Borneo FC and Bali United.

Arema’s last match against PSS ended in farce as their bus was ambushed by a group of individuals who threw rocks at the vehicle, injuring a number of people including assistant coach Kuncoro. These individuals were likely rival supporters who were angry towards Arema’s insistence of continuing their league campaign in spite of the Kanjuruhan Tragedy.

A number of key players have also departed the Singo Edan in the wake of the tragedy – both Hanis Saghara and Irsyad Maulana have departed for Persita Tangerang, Hasyim Kipuw had left Arema for Madura United, while Adam Alis has swapped the blue of Arema for the orange of Borneo.

Two key figures within Arema – club president Gilang Widya Pramana and manager M. Ali Rifki – had also resigned from their position prior to the league’s restart. The two men stepped down from their posts as their form of responsibility towards the Kanjuruhan Tragedy.

The latest chapter in Arema’s increasingly downward spiral happened on Sunday, when a group of Aremania stormed the club’s office and store, demanding a proper apology from Arema as well as asking the club to resign from the current season as an act of respect towards those killed in the tragedy. The protest soon decended into anarchy, with clashes between the Aremania and the office’s security guards that led to significant damange on both the office building and its adjacent store.

In the wake of this, Tatang Dwi Arifianto, commissioner of PT Arema Aremania Bersatu Berprestasi Indonesia – the company that owns Arema – mulled the option to dissolve the club altogether, ending 35 years of history that started with the club’s foundation back in August 11th 1987.

“Arema FC has done all that they could in the wake of the Kanjuruhan Tragedy,” said Tatang in an official club release, “This includes opening a crisis center to assist in handling victims, facing legal proceedings and lawsuits both criminal and civil and maintaining the existence of clubs so that they can continue to compete even with various sanctions and fines from the federation.”

“Providing trauma healing services, as well as maintaining the club’s existence in order to survive. We really understand the prolonged atmosphere of grief, we will continue to try and try to get this situation back to normal,” Tatang continued, “We have the people of Malang in our thoughts when we plan what to do next, as a lot of stakeholders are depending on Arema to survive such as small businesses, street vendors, and so on. But if Arema’s existence has created a disturbance in peace within Malang and Indonesia, then we might consider a possible way to defuse the situation.”

Whatever will happen next, the Kanjuruhan Tragedy and the downfall of Arema FC that came as its fallout will remain as one of the darkest chapter of Indonesian football.