Abstract:
In an effort to get national interests, the state does not always use the ability of hard power, but also be able to use soft power. Foreign policy of a state depands on the leader of the state, the using of hard power and soft power also depands on the leader of the state and the situation. Indeed, soft power prefer to use instruments that is attractive, one of them is through sports. Sport now is not just be for health activities, the event to compete, entertainment or mere spectacle, but the sport can be a means to achieve the national interest of a state.
As one of the most respected Asian countries in football, soft power can be obtained from the games that Indonesia played that can make scouts interested in having players from Indonesia and contract them to play at higher club level in international scale. And public diplomacy is obtained from the existence games of Indonesia. This could attract other country players to come and have the ambience to play in ISL or attract investors to come and invest in Indonesia. Most importantly is Indonesia could continue their national branding through football.
Not participating in some competitions for some time as the government's intervention on Indonesia's football association is one of the best choices for the writer to do this analysis. Government intervention made FIFA as the world's highest football organization suspend and ultimately make Indonesia sanctioned and unable to participate in the international sport. In this case, sports diplomacy is troubled to strengthen the relationships with other countries.
