Amid announcements left, right and center of European soccer clubs opening up franchises of their international academies in Indonesia, Liverpool FC is already one step ahead.
For six months now Liverpool FC International Football Academy has been up and running, with the soccer school’s (LFCIFAss) facility in Senayan opening three months later.
New Senior Academy Coach from Liverpool FC Ben Parsonage believes that Liverpool’s popularity and loyal fan base in Indonesia will be key to the academy’s success.
“Hopefully, people will come on board and take the opportunity, because the fan base here for Liverpool is massive,” Parsonage told The Jakarta Post. “I think it’s the biggest one outside the UK.”
Parsonage, who just arrived at the LFCIFAss three weeks ago from England on a one-year coaching contract, credits Liverpool’s worldwide popularity to what is commonly referred to as “the Liverpool way”.
It’s not necessarily what Liverpool does, Parsonage explains, but what they do differently to other clubs. Taking words from former Liverpool great Steve Heighway, Parsonage said, “The Liverpool Football Club is a massive club and the magic is still the same. It doesn’t matter whether you’re six, 26 or 66, you still love the club, you still want to be part of the club, and I think with what we’re doing now, it gives them [the Indonesian supporters] an opportunity to be part of the club in their own … way.”
The LFCIFAss has over 200 students on its books, aged between six and 18, predominantly coming from South and West Jakarta. The Academy is open to both boys and girls, who can opt to train between one and three times a week.
There is no try-out process to join the academy, just a membership-joining fee. Parsonage admits that the Rp 1.75 million fee is expensive, but explains that in a new market the academy has to show that they are offering a top-quality service.
“It is expensive, but I think … we really do set ourselves apart from everybody else in that the service that we provide is unique,” Parsonage said. Both he and head coach Paul Barratt have been involved in the club for several years, having played themselves at reserve level. “We really know what it takes,” he says.
Gozali Ramli Aziz, whose seven-year-old son Omaar plays at the academy, agreed that the service offered at the LFCIFAss is top-class. Gozali, residing in Senayan, has supported Liverpool since he was the same age as his son, so he was thrilled when he found out that the Liverpool Academy was opening up close to where he lives.
Omaar loves playing soccer, his father says, but the most important thing about his son’s time at the academy is “[the benefits] for his health … [it helps him be] open-minded so he can interact with people from many other countries. It’s also good for his self-esteem and for his ability to compete.”
Omaar’s teammate, 10-year-old Rayhan Rafferty from Kuningan, South Jakarta, also supports Liverpool, and wants to be a professional soccer player when he grows up. When asked how he felt playing each week wearing the Liverpool jersey, he admitted, “It makes me feel good.”
When asked whether he thought it was a problem that financially disadvantaged Indonesian children would not be able to afford to join the academy, Parsonage agreed, but said that he hoped when the program was more established in Indonesia, scholarship programs could be initiated.
“We’re going to be doing all sorts of different activities that will be open to … people who haven’t got the financial support, so eventually the goal will be to interact with different children here, whether or not they have the money,” he explained. “We want to leave a legacy and we want to be doing things the right way, the Liverpool way … we have to start somewhere.”
Parsonage highlighted the importance of reaching out to more financially disadvantaged children who love to play soccer.
“The level of soccer among those children is very, very high. I think it comes down to the fact that children who are from well-off backgrounds, they just have so many different things going on in their life. For the children who aren’t well-off, it’s soccer or nothing … soccer is their life and that’s what they do,” he said
Liverpool currently has similar partnerships operating worldwide, including in Ireland, Egypt, Norway, Sweden, Greece, Cyprus and the United States.
