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Entertainment

The Last Home Of True Football Culture

Disappointed by the modern English game, Anthony Sutton tell's us why Indonesia is one of the last remaining vestiges of real football fans.

Over a decade ago in South Jakarta sports pub, Antony Sutton made a decision that would change his life. The former London resident and Highbury Stadium native broke off the stereotypical expat path and went to watch a live Indonesian football match for the first time.

"Do you really want to see football?" His wife asked.

"I could see that inside she was thinking 'let's stay a bit longer,'" said Sutton. "For her, in a choice between going to a football match in Indonesia or sitting in a pub, she rather stay in the pub."

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His wife had reason to worry, the terraces at Indonesian football matches are famous for their brutality. "She was thinking what everyone else was thinking about football; riots, fighting, the chaos," he added.

Antony Sutton is famous among the Indonesian football world for Jakarta Casual, his blog on local football news and culture. In the terraces Sutton is commonly mistaken for a scout or foreign manager. After 15 years of living in Indonesia and following the local game he's written a book called Sepakbola: The Indonesian Way of Life, a collection of his personal experiences and insights on football culture in Indonesia.

Sutton said he went into the games not knowing what to expect and came out a fan. The tactics left much to be desired, but for Sutton football was about the fans behind it, the passion in the stands is what made him decide to dedicate himself to the local game.

"Football fans are the same everywhere, you have this naive belief that your team can do well at absolutely any game, at absolutely every season," said Sutton. "But in Indonesia we happen to express that passion in ways that we can't in England anymore."

Football in England has come a long way since Sutton saw his first match in 1973. A match ticket to watch Arsenal play this season costs £55 (Rp910,000/$67). The high cost of a match day has lead to live match experiences available for a certain segment of the population, one that would probably be shocked at the way Sutton passionately jumps and yells out of his seat while watching a match.

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"Local teams benefit the economy in a certain way," observed Sutton. "Encouraging these local lads becoming almost entrepreneurial." Sutton believes the amateur nature and passion behind Liga Satu keeps the magic of football in Indonesia alive.

Fans of local teams might take some inspiration from their European counterparts, but this is where most of the similarities end. Hardcore fans are involved in running the club everyday. They attend the away games by hitchhiking on the back of trucks and produce merchandise on their own for the club. The fans possess a communal quality almost unheard of in the world of modern football that's been flooded by sponsors and cash.

"In the terraces, it reflects what you see in Europe," said Sutton. "At a deeper level, it's beyond that."

While certain parts of Indonesian football suffers from hooliganism, for Sutton it's not just an Indonesian problem. Growing up in England during the 60's and 70's, punk and football went hand to hand.

"If your face didn't fit, and your clothes didn't fit, you're always gonna be targeted by someone," he said. "The media would jump on the smallest thing and turn it into a big thing, because it was either football or music, as long as it makes headlines."

The history of Indonesian football is riddled with examples of terrible management, but as a result of this, it's brought fans together in ways that would not be possible otherwise. Fans of Persebaya, from Surabaya, have struggled to keep their team alive. They traveled to Jakarta in a mission to lobby the Indonesian Football Association to save their team. While they were there, rival fans fed and housed them in support of their fight to rescue their club. For them, it's enduring the struggle and keeping football local football alive together.

"The whole football experience they have here, for all its bad points; and there are a lot of bad points," said Sutton. "[But] to me, is pretty special."