Ini adalah tulisan saya beberapa tahun lalu yang dimuat di the MAG UK....
It may be a bit confusing for you all Geordies born and bred why bunch of people on the other side of the world as far as Indonesia choosing to support NUFC although the club almost never wins anything..
It may be a bit confusing for you all Geordies born and bred why bunch of people on the other side of the world as far as Indonesia choosing to support NUFC although the club almost never wins anything..
Here, if you
like, I want to share a bit of story of Indonesian Toon Army (ITA) and some of
the reason why some Indonesian considered themselves bleed black and white.
Here it goes.
Since the late
1980s Indonesian national TV station started to broadcast English Football
League to Indonesian public with Liverpool or Man-U dominated the league.
However, NUFC started to gained attention in Indonesia when they promoted in
1993 and more affection came when the attacking football ala Keegan was more
often shown up on TV.
When Liverpool
and Manchester United already grabbed millions fans in Indonesia in just few
years due to their success, the emergence of NUFC (along with Blackburn also in
the radar) that try to break their domination considered as a fresh air to
footy lovers whose dislike that two teams.
Some people
begun to follow how NUFC goes in the league then support the team or directly
support the team after love at the first sight experience, more to come to
support NUFC after Shearer signed. As far I remember Shearer’s move to NUFC was
gained big attention in Indonesian sport press/media with reputable sport
magazines/news put Shearer’s famous photo in front of NUFC fans as their front
cover.
Surprisingly
based on ITA’s data (as we asked wor members why do you support NUFC?), the
black and white shirt of NUFC is the main reason of why ITA’s members support
NUFC at the first place.. you know, love can be happen and come just like that =).
It is just a destiny that we chose to love NUFC or maybe the grace of god?
In 1999, as
internet started to become cheaper and cheaper and wider internet coverage
penetrated Indonesia, ITA’s founder Eddy Shearyadi has initiative to organize
and contact as many as possible (if not all) NUFC fans in this very vast
archipelagic country of Indonesia under the supporters club named ‘Indonesian
Toon Army’. His initial effort was success when dozens of Indonesian NUFC supporter
finally met up on-line to discuss and sharing passion to NUFC.
From there we
stepped up the efforts by using Friendster, Myspace, then Facebook, and even
say hi to stranger we don’t know if he/she wearing NUFC shirt and ask them
whether they support NUFC or not, if yes then please join us. This method is
like “Hello, I just met you, and this is crazy, here’s my number, so call me
maybe?”… and this campaign still goes on until now =). For your information
NUFC fans in Indonesia is very rare compared to other bigger clubs, for this
reason we all happy to find out or to be found by/our fellow Toon Army in
Indonesia.
It is such a
blessed feeling when all NUFC supporters that we found in Indonesia were
happily told that finally they found their community/family because they
thought that all this time they were all alone in the sea of glory hunter fans
that always changing their heart and shirt (which is disgusting) in supporting
Liverpool, Man-U, Chelsea, and the most recent Man-City and even clubs from
other leagues like Milan, Madrid, and Barca.
When more fans
were more routinely gathered in online forum finally we agreed to make our
first real face to face meeting to watch live match NUFC in one of the biggest
shopping center in Jakarta, unfortunately only 5 of us attended that first
meeting (from about 50 members).
The lack of
members shown up in the very first meeting was rather than cooling down the
passion to routinely gather up when NUFC play but it was just flamed us
instead. More texts, messages, e-mails of invitation were sent to all members
to come to our meeting in every NUFC game be it in the afternoon or late of
night, weekend or midweek. When the fans confidence, friendly atmosphere, and
sense of belonging to ITA were established and stabile, in the end the number
of lads like in the photo below is likely to sing along in every NUFC game in
some cities in Indonesia.
In term of
craziness, fanaticism, and passion to NUFC no doubt these gentlemen are among
the best. We never lost in singing against far superior in number of supporter
clubs, our banter is definitely the cleverest and the best among supporter
clubs in Indonesia.
From some
of many fanaticisms, these are some love of my fellow Toon faithful that I
noted most;
Firstly, one
of our members is worshiping Shearer as his god and Shola is the apostle, this
guy is super crazy;
Secondly,
its been a norm to us that if we are married there must be some NUFC attributes
in that holy ceremonies, be it the bride/groom wearing NUFC merchandise or even
shirts, or the guest dress code should be black and white, moreover the
pre-wedding photo wearing NUFC shirts is a must for many of us;
Thirdly,
majority of us are collecting NUFC shirts and there is even a small lad that
collecting the shirts with every NUFC players name on it …so he will have more
than 11 new NUFC shirts in every season with Taylor, Collocini, Cisse, etc
printed on it, the more hilarious way of collecting NUFC shirts is conducted by
our member who prefer only to own the fake version of NUFC shirts as his
collection, if there’s none in the market he will make it by himself.
Fourthly, there is one guy that pledged last
season if NUFC succeed to secure a place in the big 5 he will treat some of ITA
members to go to SJP (he will pay all the cost to get there! Haha), and NUFC in
the top 5 did happened! So now we expect that another delegation of ITA will
soon visit SJP to watch the EPL and Europa League match.
Fifthly, I
clearly remember of how we made a lot of extra effort to watch NUFC game during
our championship division days. We went from café to café, pub to pub, mal to
mal in order to get a place that show championship actions which of course we
came out with zero result. We ended up by watching live streaming which is lack
of quality due to low internet speed or even have to be satisfied by only
follow the match through livescore updates. The extra efforts were worth it
noted that in the end of the season we were back to Premiership as champion.
The last
and the thing that I consider that we Indonesian Toon Army can be proud as NUFC
true supporter is our effort to go to SJP. Many of us saves substantial amount
of money to get there, as you know normal Indonesian income are not as high as
people in developed countries, so it is a huge sacrifice to do just to make our
self can visit SJP. Visit Newcastle or SJP is like a dream, obsession, life
achievement, and life purpose for ITA members, it is have spiritual and
sentimental values, the feel is like a devoted Muslim longing to visit Mecca.
As Indonesia going more prosperous you’ll notice more Indonesian travel to
Newcastle.
Some
cleverer way is by obtaining scholarship to study in the UK. Some fans like me
is lucky enough to get that scholarship by argued brightly to convince the
scholarship board so I can study in Newcastle University which that means I
–goes without saying—have secure my place as a season ticket holder at SJP, of
course I concealed my true intention in studying at Newcastle University LOL. For
me a year study in Newcastle was wonderful and we have a brilliant season of
2011/2012.
Indonesian
Toon Army now consists of 1.168 members with estimated 750 active members, I
believe ITA is the biggest NUFC supporter club outside the UK or Ireland and we
keep on growing (although at slower pace compared to Chelsea, Barca, or
Man-City fans) bear in mind that
1. Duo
Dembas and Ben Arfa are very popular nowadays and so does NUFC as
non-mainstream football club that may attract interest of new young football
fans;
2.
Indonesia is very vast archipelagic state with thousands of islands with so
many remote areas without internet access (although TV coverage is already
nationwide so watching NUFC is no longer big problem for every Indonesia in
every corner of the country) so the possibility to find new fellow Toon Army is
still have a great odds. In the other words the current number of NUFC
supporter in Indonesia as registered as ITA members might be smaller due to
undetected fans out there in remote villages or mountains =)
Last thing
I want to say is we may not a Geordie born and bred but we are not different a
single bit in the level of love, loyalty, and passion for NUFC, for us it is
like dying if a week without NUFC. Every member of ITA is young people in the
age between as young as 14 to 42 years old with most of us already support NUFC
for 14 to 18 years and definitely still on the go until the day we die.
HOWAY THE
LADS!
PS:
If there
any Geordies in exile or Toon Army in Indonesia that might not want to miss
NUFC match during your stay in Indonesia why not contact us? We are live and
sound in the big cities like Jakarta, Bandung, Yogyakarta, Bogor, Medan,
Semarang, and Makassar
You can
reach us through twitter: @IndoToonArmy or facebook: http://www.facebook.com/groups/indo.toonarmy/?fref=ts don’t worry we do speak English =)
We also
have website that you may want to check: www.indotoon.com
but it’s in Indonesian Language =)
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