This year Birmingham City is 140 e anniversary as a professional football club. It was not much of a story with a playoff success of the second row, a couple of League Cups and a third-level title, taking first place in their trophy cabinet.
The second city of England sharing with Aston Villa, Birmingham are still able to attract fans through the turnstiles with an average of 16,000 watching their home games at St. Andrews during the 2014-15 season .
To commemorate their 140 e year, the club set up a single badge, and with it a range of souvenir merchandise, all designed to encourage supporters to dig deep and hands on their money.
Given the number of football clubs there are in England, a famous club somewhere something every year. Closer to home, a famous Indonesian football club its centenary this year. Persatuan Sepak Bola Makassar (PSM) Sulawesi has the distinction of being the oldest football club in the country and November 2nd sees football entering uncharted territory when it comes to remember his past.
PSM was founded on 1915 as 2November Macassaarsche Voetbal Bund (MVB) by a gentleman named M L Hartwing, an employee of the Dutch government, which at the time ruled the archipelago. The club has attracted an assortment of players with Dutch, Chinese and local players and they certainly many opponents, with the likes of Prosit (founded in 1909) composed of colonial Dutch players and Bintang Priajoe (1910) featuring local players. In 1914, the Chinese community formed their own club, Sportvereeniging Excelsior, who played at Lapangan Karebosi.
Little is known about the early days of MVB, although two names live on -. Sagi and Sangkala
On 2 July 1928, an Australian team preparing for Tourism Amsterdam Olympics in 1928 arrested in Makassar and obtained a moral victory stimulate 2-1 in unfamiliar territory.
The Second World War saw Japan invaded the Dutch East Indies, but there was football again, and in the middle of humble carnage becak Barru runner in South Sulawesi has the first steps towards a career that has led to a pundit described as the original "Special one".
Rusli Ramang grew up playing sepak takraw , a mixture between volleyball and football known for its graceful movement and athletic get a rattan ball over a net. He moved to Makassar after married and soon came to the attention of the PSM after scoring seven goals in a match for his club and Persis All Sulawesi. In 1952 he was called by the national team on a tour around Asia, taking on the Philippines, Hong Kong and Thailand, where he scored an impressive 19 goals.
The 1950s were a glorious time to be a fan of PSM. Ramang with rattling in the goals for fun, they won the Perserikatan (the nearest thing Indonesia has to a national league in the years before and after independence) in 1957 and 1959 before adding securities back- to-back in 1965 and 1966 - and a final one in 1992.
when professional football was introduced in 1994, PSM still had a sniff of success when they were crowned champions in 1999 / 2000; their last piece of silverware.
With the title in their pocket, PSM began to conquer Asia in the Asian Club Championship, later known as the League Asia AFC Champions. They started their campaign in style, beating Vietnamese side Song Lam Nghe An 4-1 overall in the first round to earn a draw against the Royal Thai Airforce. The goals kept flowing like PSM Thais beat home and away, winning 6-1 and 5-0 respectively.
The goal glut insured instead of PSM in the quarterfinals, where they were selected to host. Joining them were Jubilo Iwata Japan, Suwon Samsung Bluewings of South Korea and Shandong Luneng Taishan. The goals continued to flow, but unfortunately for fans of the house, known as Macz Man, they were in the wrong order.
They lost their opening match 3-1 against Shandong with fans waiting until the 90 e minute before Suwandi Siswoyo gave them something to cheer.
Their next match saw them take on Suwon and this time the fans are not so long to wait; Kurniawan Dwi Yulianto legendary striker scoring on the 35th minute. Unfortunately, its impact was the same as of Suwandi; a little consolation that Koreans had run in five-goal lead in the opening 25 minutes! PSM continued to lose the match 8-1.
Jubilo Iwata coasted to a 3-0 victory in the last match, leaving the bottom of the PSM group, winless and pointless; a bitter-tasting lesson, but a harsh reminder of the gap between the best Indonesian football and the rest of Asia. How sad lessons are always still learning.
They were back in 2004 and 2005, but in a competition much more they continued to struggle and failed to get out of the group stage on both occasions, winning just three games out of 12 in the two years.
And that was about all. Success eluded the likes of PSM as Persipura and Sriwijaya Palembang dominated the national scene and Roosters East managed to follow. In 2011, they backed the wrong horse when they chose to withdraw from the Indonesia Super League and join the breakaway Liga Premier Indonesia where football split into two opposing camps.
With the game reunified in 2014, PSM found themselves once again back in the ISL, forced to play their home games in Surabaya that the authorities deemed them Mattalatta Stadium unworthy Andi as directed. Home games have been played in a bowl 60,000 cavernous spaces on the outskirts of the second largest city in Indonesia before crowds rarely topped four digits.
The 2015 season saw go home with a good start by beating Persiba Balikpapan 4-0 and 3-3 against the widely believed Sriwijaya drawing before the season was interrupted because of infighting between the government and the Football Association, where the government has refused to recognize the PSSI.
The compromise may be in the air and ISL hope to start a new league in October. Until then, Makassar hosts Gresik United, Persipasi Bekasia Raya Pusamania Borneo and in the President's Cup.
The clock, however, turns to their 100 e birthday and it does not look like much, so anything is planned to celebrate the occasion. When Indonesian football clubs are always whining about the lack of money they have, it seems a bit negligent nothing is done to take advantage of this unique event. certainly having the oldest football club in the area is something to be proud of?