Did You Know, Indonesia Will Lose IDR 3 Trillion If The Football Competition Stops

Illustration (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - A positive signal for the football competition to take place in the country was confirmed in a video conference held on Thursday afternoon, August 12 yesterday. PSSI General Chair Mochamad Iriawan stated that the biggest soccer celebration in the country would start again after a year and a half vacuum due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"League 1 competition will start on August 27," he said.

In order to support the most popular sporting activity in Indonesia, PT Bank Rakyat Indonesia Tbk (BRI) agreed to become the main sponsor of Liga 1 for one season, namely for the 2021/2022 period.

This was confirmed directly by the President Director of BRI Sunarso. According to him, football does not only have a social effect on society, but also has a large economic impact.

"As a state-owned company, BRI continues to create value, both economic value and social value to all stakeholders, especially to the community," he said.

Even according to Sunarso's calculations, the lost economic potential due to the absence of soccer competitions is worth trillions of rupiah.

"The economic loss from the cessation of domestic football is quite large, reaching Rp2.7 trillion to Rp3 trillion per year," he said.

This figure was conveyed by the BRI boss citing a study conducted by the Institute for Economic and Community Research, University of Indonesia (LPEM UI) in June last year.

"In addition, there are 24,000 people who are directly involved in the national football industry," he said.

For this reason, through BRI Liga 1, Sunarso wants to revive economic activity in the football industry, which has been stalled since early 2020.

"Through BRI's participation in direct support, it is hoped that it will be able to move the national economy, especially so that the national football industry, including SMEs, MSMEs and their derivatives such as soccer jersey convection businesses, souvenir sellers, and soccer team knick-knacks sellers can return to life," he clear.

“Besides strengthening BRI's brand image in the eyes of the wider community, Liga 1 will also be an effective and efficient means to communicate BRI's services and products. Hopefully with the passing of the football competition, it can provide the best possible benefits for the nation, state, and society," concluded Sunarso.