PSIS Semarang are inching closer towards returning to the Jatidiri Stadium for the 2022/23 Liga 1 Indonesia season after the Mahesa Jenar secured permission from the Central Java Bureau of Youth, Sports, and Tourism to use the newly-renovated stadium for the club’s upcoming friendly matches.
Since returning to the Liga 1 in the 2018 season after a 10-year absence, PSIS have played their home games at the Moch. Soebroto Stadium in Magelang, a 1 hour and 45-minute drive southwest of Semarang. This was due to the large-scale renovation of their spiritual home at the Jatidiri, which saw the stadium being torn down and then rebuilt from the ground up in order for the venue to meet the Liga 1’s standards.
The Jatidiri’s renovation took almost five years to complete and the finished product was a modern, state-of-the-art stadium that looked nothing like its predecessor. With a digital scoreboard, international-standard lighting, a revamped pitch, and a capacity expansion from 20000 people to 25000, the Jatidiri Stadium has been transformed into a stadium that would hopefully not only fulfil the standards of the Liga 1, but also the AFC.
And while PSIS had trained at the revamped Jatidiri, they have yet to play a match there as the stadium is still receiving its finishing touches. Despite this, the Mahesa Jenar plans to make the stadium ready for the upcoming Liga 1 campaign this July.
Meeting up with the Central Java Bureau of Youth, Sports, and Tourism as the stadium’s operator on Friday, the PSIS management received a letter of recommendation for the bureau to allow the club to hold pre-season matches. This letter of recommendation is seen as a good stepping stone for PSIS, as if they could take good care of the stadium and its facilities during pre-season, it’s a good possibility that the bureau would allow PSIS to hold their league matches at the Jatidiri.
PSIS are set to play Arema FC at the Jatidiri in a friendly match on June 4th, after taking on the same opponents at the Kanjuruhan Stadium on May 22nd. The friendlies will be attended by supporters of both sides, marking the occasion as one of the first few matches that saw the return of spectators into Indonesian stadiums following the pandemic.
The 2022/23 season is set to be a very exciting season for a PSIS supporter. Not only that the club will return to the Jatidiri, the Mahesa Jenar have also signed a number of star players for the season ahead, such as Carlos Fortes, Taisei Marukawa, Alie Sesay, Guntur Triaji, Wawan Febrianto, and Oktafianus Fernando.