Making a Living in the Middle of Tumultuous Sound

I heard from my friend who was from South Tangerang, Umam, that there used to be a football team from Tangerang called Tangerang Wolves. Today, that team doesn’t exist anymore. According to Umam, Tangerang Wolves was founded in the early days of the Indonesian Premier League (LPI). But in the next season, when PSSI (Football Association of Indonesia) had already been chaired Djohar Arifin, this team had vanished into thin air. Since the beginning, there had been two teams in Tangerang that had rabid supporters, Persikota and Persita. Tangerang Wolves which didn’t have rabid supporters couldn’t survive. It could be that a football team relied heavily on its supporters.

The story from Umam reminds me of a football match that I watched more than a year ago. Uniquely, that match was the first and the only football game that I watched live in a stadium. But this article is not going to tell you about that match only. I also remember how a football event was enlivened by seasonal traders.

On that day I was watching a football match in Bojonegoro, a town where I studied at IKIP PGRI (Education and Teacher’s Training Institute, Teachers Association of the Republic of Indonesia) Bojonegoro. Both teams who played were Persibo Bojonegoro against Tangerang Wolves in an LPI match. The match ran smoothly and orderly, although the weather wasn’t too good – it was cloudy in Bojonegoro, and it had rained lightly when the match was in progress.

The game started. The supporters were ready to encourage the players with the movements of the jerseys, following the guidance from a conductor. In the pitch, the players struggled in a very fierce game. The Boromanias (the nickname for the rabid supporters of Persibo Bojonegoro) shouted the cheers or yells of encouragement for their favorite team.

At that time people in Indonesia were in a football fever because at the end of that year, Indonesia was participating in the biggest football event in Southeast Asia, AFF, which was a peak of a change in sport, particularly football. The increase in the number of football enthusiast in Indonesia didn’t happen only in big cities, but from a town to a sub-district, people in great numbers had made a football tournament. Maybe the prospective new players who had better skill than the existing ones could be developed from a small town, who knew?

During the halftime, I saw many supporters looking for a snack or drink, because they got tired after cheering their team. This time, the street vendors were ready to be attacked by the spectators who wanted to buy food or drink that they sold. However, sometimes they were cheated while selling their goods, because there were people who often took the food without paying. That was the thing that the traders didn’t like. They had put a lot of effort in vending but people didn’t pay. A lumpia (spring roll) seller told me about this experience.

When the second half started, the vendors who had stayed in place before, waiting for the buyer to come now started to walk in turn around the supporters because if they didn’t do that their goods wouldn’t be sold. The street vendors would look for people who were maybe hungry or thirsty. Besides, during the game, the supporters focused on the game, so, whether they wanted it or not, they were present among the people who were occupied with watching the football.

Being in the Bojonegoro Sudirman Stadium, I tried to approach a woman who was about 45 years old. Her name was Ida. She was serving the people who bought lumpia. There were other street vendors who peddled their goods inside the stadium with the equipment that they could carry around with them anywhere. Those street vendors were free to roam around the crowd in the stadium. While eating lumpia, I asked Ibu Ida. She said one container made of banana leaf contained three lumpias cost 2,000 IDR. Yes, when there was a game like this she could make a profit 40% more than the usual days when she traded at the markets in Bojonegoro. When there was a football match like this, she didn’t waste the pretty limited time because it was only 2 times 45 minutes, plus the halftime for the football players who were in the game, that wasn’t too long.

Ibu Ida was still excited to sell her lumpia like the spirit of football spectators. She took part in enlivening the game by selling food inside the stadium. Her aim wasn’t to encourage the team, but to hope that her goods were sold and bought up by the supporters.

A few minutes later, after the second half had started, Persibo team did a kick that produced a goal. Instantly, the supporters shouted loudly and the atmosphere inside the stadium became boisterous by the spectators in orange jersey. With the making of a score, the supporters were getting more excited in singing the songs or yells which had been prepared by the supporters of Persibo which had been known as Boromania. They all cheered, celebrating the home winning of their favorite team. The goal that was made in second half became the only goal until the game was over. The match between Persibo and Tangerang Wolves was over.