2022 in Indonesian football explained

Country:	Indonesia
Season:	2022
Division1:	Liga 1
Champions1:	Bali United
Division2:	Liga 2
Champions2:	Persis
Division3:	Liga 3
Champions3:	Karo United
Prevseason:	2021
Nextseason:	2023
Flagicon:	yes

The 2022 season of competitive association football in Indonesia.

Promotion and relegation

League	Promoted to league	Relegated from league
Liga 1	Persis RANS Nusantara Dewa United	Persipura Persela Persiraja
Liga 2	Karo United Putra Delta Sidoarjo PSDS Nusantara United (replacing Mataram Utama)^[1] Deltras Persikab Persipa Gresik United Persipal (via acquisition of Muba Babel United)	Tiga Naga Badak Lampung Hizbul Wathan Mitra Kukar

Name changes

On 30 May 2022, during the 2022 PSSI Ordinary Congress, six teams had their name change requests accepted by the federation:^[1]

Liga 1

Dewa United removed "Martapura" from its official name, having previously acquired Martapura to play in Liga 2 last season.
Borneo added their home city of "Samarinda" to their full name, thus becoming Borneo Samarinda.
TIRA-Persikabo officially changed its name to Persikabo 1973, even though the name was already used for the last season as a commercial arrangement.^[2]
RANS Cilegon changed its name to RANS Nusantara and moved their homebase to Jakarta.^[3]

Liga 2

AHHA PS Pati relocated to Bekasi and were renamed to Bekasi FC^[1] ^[4] However, following a lawsuit by Bekasi FC's original rights holder, the club is subject to another name change, which will be decided in the near future.^[5]
Mataram Utama handed over their senior team to a group of investors, who subsequently rebranded the club as Nusantara United.^[1] ^[6] The two clubs exist as separate entities, with Nusantara United taking over Mataram Utama's place in the Liga 2, while Mataram Utama redirected their focus towards youth development and their football academy.^[7] On 5 July, revealed that they are now based in Nusantara, the planned new capital of Indonesia.^[8]

Club acquisition

Muba Babel United was acquired by Liga 3 side Persipal Palu. As a result, Persipal took over Muba Babel United's place in Liga 2 starting from the 2022-23 season.^[9] ^[10] ^[11]

Domestic leagues

After the Kanjuruhan Stadium disaster, where at least 135 people died^[12] in a stampede triggered by police usage of tear gas on supporters who were still inside the stadium, Liga 1, Liga 2, and Liga 3 were put on hold.^[13] On 6 October 2022, Indonesian police announced six accused, three league related operator and three police officers. The accused operators are: director of PT Liga Indonesia Baru Ahmad Hadi Lukita, Arema match organising committee chairman Abdul Haris, and Arema head of security officer Suko Sutrisno.^[14] ^[15]

See main article: 2022–23 Liga 1 (Indonesia). The 2022–23 Liga 1 season (also known as the 2022–23 BRI Liga 1 season for sponsorship reasons)^[16] was the 13th season of the Liga 1, the top Indonesian professional league for association football clubs since its establishment in 2008. The season started on 23 July 2022,^[17] with the first match between PSIS and RANS Nusantara which ended draw.^[18] Bali United were the two-time defending champions.

National teams

Indonesia withdrew from the tournament on 11 February 2022 because seven players tested positive for COVID-19, four others were categorised as suspected COVID-19 cases and three players suffered injuries.^[19]