The Track Record Of The Late Azwar Anas, Former PSSI Chairman Who Brought Indonesian National Team Players To Serie A Club

Former PSSI General Chair, Azwar Anas. (Photo via Antara/West Sumatra Provincial Government)

JAKARTA - Sad news enveloped Indonesian football. The former chairman of PSSI for the 1991-1998 period, Azwar Anas, died on Sunday, March 5, 2023.

During his tenure as Chairman of PSSI, Azwar Anas, had an extraordinary track record for Indonesian football. The man who was born in Padang, West Sumatra on August 2, 1933, became the originator of the lighthouse project.

In the project, PSSI collaborated with Serie A club Sampdoria to become a mentor for young Indonesian national team educators.

This step was chosen to realize Azwar Anas' dream so that one day the Indonesian national team can appear in the World Cup. He then sent Indonesian young players to train and compete in Italy.

After building cooperation with Sampdoria, a PSSI Primavera team was formed, the majority of which came from the Ragunan Education and Training in Jakarta. A number of names of Indonesian legends were born from PSSI Primavera, namely Bima Sakti, Kurniawan Dwi Yulianto, Yeyen Tumena, to Kurnia Sandi.

Not stopping at PSSI Primavera, this program continues to PSSI Baretti. The two programs also led Azwar Anas to raise ideas to combine Indonesian football competitions, namely, Galatama and the United in 1995.

The merger later became the forerunner of a more professional football competition, namely the Indonesian League.

However, his career at PSSI did not always end in his success. He also encountered a number of problems when he mixed Indonesian football to make it better.

The thing that caught the most attention was the emergence of cases of the referee mafia and the elephant football scandal that occurred in the Indonesian League IV in the 1997/1998 competition season.

The referee's dirty game on the Indonesian League competition stage made Azwar Anas at that time immediately formed a Fact Finding Team. The results of the investigation of the case found that the Deputy Chairman of the PSSI Referee Commission, Jafar Umar and 40 referees were involved and found guilty.

After the scandal, Azwar was then faced with the harsh reality of elephant football that befell the Indonesian national team. The scandal occurred in the 1998 Tiger Cup by Indonesian defender, Mursyid Effendi, who deliberately made an own goal to avoid Vietnam.

Because of his actions, Mursyid received a ban on appearing on the international stage for life. In addition, Indonesia must also pay a fine of 40 thousand from FIFA.

The peak of the elephant football scandal made Azwar Anas a target in the country because it was considered less firm in leading PSSI. With the great spirit of the PSSI General Chair who also serves as Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare, he finally chose to resign.