The 2023/24 Liga 1 Indonesia season has been officially launched on Monday, with promises of better refereeing and officiating following an improvement in both pay and standards set by the Football Federation of Indonesia (PSSI).
PSSI chairman Erick Thohir has planned to increase the pay of referees to around 20 million Rupiahs per month, approximately the same amount of salary that a minister in the Indonesian government would receive. This was a huge increase compared to what Erick’s predecessor Mochammad Irawan had paid during his tenure, with each Liga 1 referee only receiving 10 million Rupiahs per month.
This pay increase would not only improve the livelihoods of referees, but also preventing them from participating in illegal avenues for extra income such as match-fixing.
But with higher pay comes the expectation of a higher standard of refereeing and officiating, and Indonesian referees don’t exactly have the best track record in taking charge of games.
With this in mind, Erick and the PSSI have joined forces with the Japanese Football Association (JFA) in establishing a better standard for referees in Indonesia. More than 100 referees were screened by both the PSSI and the JFA to see if they could meet the standards for better refereeing, and only 18 were deemed qualified. These 18 referees are set to take charge of Liga 1 games for this season.
One of the 18 qualified referees was Heru Cahyono, who expressed his gratitude towards the PSSI’s plan to improve referee livelihood.
“God be willing,” Heru said at Monday’s Liga 1 launch, as quoted from Bolasport, “If indeed the chairman conveyed it like that, we as the organizers of the competition are grateful.”
Monday’s launch touched upon not only the improvement on the referees, but also the introduction of a new “Championship Series” format that saw the top four teams at the end of the regular season battling it out once again in a post-season mini-knockout tournament for the league title, as well as addressing concerns on how the league’s stadiums are going to be used as the 2023 FIFA U-17 World Cup is going to be held in Indonesia at the end of this year, with the PSSI awaiting for further information regarding the tournament’s venues from FIFA.