Dutch East Indies International Matches


Dutch East Indies - International Players
Indonesia International Matches

Dutch East Indies - Football History


Introduction

During the colonial era, two islandwide federations, the N.I.V.B. until 1935 and the N.I.V.U. after 1935, existed on Java (both included city federations from other islands as associate members, but only after World War II some of these obtained regular membership).
Even before the formation of an all-Java federation, the W.J.V.B. (West Java Voetbal Bond, then the city federation of Batavia) had contacted the S.C.C., the Singapore Cricket Club (the reigning football league champions of the city), to invite a Singapore representative side to play matches in Batavia (against a Batavia XI) and Semarang (against a Java representative side, at the occasion of the Koloniale Tentoonstelling) in 1914. Originally, prospective match dates in Semarang were October 5, 1914, for a Singapore civilian side, and November 4, 1914, for a Singapore military team, but by July 1914, when it had been agreed only one Singapore side (of 14 players, both civilian and military) would travel, one match was planned in Semarang for 17 or 18 September (after two matches in Batavia, on 12 and 13 September); the S.F.A. organised a test match for the team to be sent to Java on 27 July and had fixtured a second on 4 August, but at the beginning of August both that second test match and the entire tour were cancelled due to the start of World War I.

On April 19, 1919, the N.I.V.B. (Nederlandsch-Indische Voetbal Bond) was founded by representatives of the four most important city federations of Java (those of Batavia, Soerabaja, Bandoeng and Semarang). It was officially affiliated to F.I.F.A. on May 24, 1924 (after provisional admission on April 15), and internationally represented the colony until it was liquidated in 1935. Its most noteworthy non-domestic activity was the participation at the 1934 Far Eastern Games in Manila (Oostersche Olympiade), the first international trip by an official Java selection.

The N.I.V.B. was liquidated in July 1935 following a year and a half of turmoil in Javanese football and succeeded by the N.I.V.U. (Nederlandsch-Indische Voetbal Unie), which was founded on June 9, 1935, and affiliated to F.I.F.A. on August 14, 1936 (after provisional admission on May 13). The N.I.V.U. was the first ever Asian federation to be represented at a World Cup, sending a team to the final tournament in France 1938. (The N.I.V.B. had earlier been represented at the 1928 Olympic Games in the Netherlands, in the person of its top referee, Max de Vries Foltynski, who refereed the match between Chile and Mexico in the consolation tournament and was linesman at six matches, including the final replay between Uruguay and Argentina.)

Apart from five clearly official matches (the three at the 1934 Far Eastern Games, the match against Hungary at the 1938 World Cup, and the friendly against the Netherlands three weeks later, which was however not recognised as an official match by the Dutch federation), which are shown in bold face (as are the four scheduled but eventually cancelled matches against the Philippines (1935), Japan and the United States (both World Cup qualifiers in 1938) and the touring China Olympic team in 1948), below all other (known) matches played by N.I.V.B. or N.I.V.U. representative sides are listed.

N.I.V.B. 1919-1935

The first three N.I.V.B. matches (1921-1930) below are listed in [FIF 31] as Inter-Association Matches (with Loh Hwa rendered Lho Hwa), suggesting the N.I.V.B. considered them to be official matches (contemporary guidelines by F.I.F.A. left such decisions to the discretion of the hosting federation). However, they can not reasonably be counted as such (for one thing, the associations of neither Singapore nor Australia were members of F.I.F.A. at the time; moreover, the team from Singapore was a club side (S.C.C.) rather than an official representation from the S.A.F.A.).

The first ever official (and competitive) match of the Dutch East Indies was the 7-1 win over Japan at the 1934 Far Eastern Games in Manila, in which two players (Ludwich Jahn and Tio Hian Goan) scored hat-tricks, possibly a unique feat for the maiden international match of a country. The N.I.V.B. (by then reduced to a Soerabaja city selection enhanced by a handful of players from Makassar (marking the first time players from another island were included) and Malang) also entered the 1935 Philippines Championship in February and March, finishing runners-up, but did not play any official association teams there (a match against the Philippines scheduled for March 7 was cancelled as the Manila clubs refused to release players). A Manila selection paid a return visit in June, playing (among others) an N.I.V.B. representation best described as a scratch side.

N.I.V.U. 1935-1942

During the summer of 1935, the N.I.V.B. was replaced by the N.I.V.U. as the organisation responsible for football on Java (and increasingly other islands of the Dutch East Indies), and after obtaining F.I.F.A. membership in May 1936, the N.I.V.U. registered for the 1938 World Cup. After Japan, meanwhile involved in a most brutal war of aggression in China, withdrew from the qualifying tournament (whether for political reasons or because of fearing a similar hammering as in 1934 is not clear), the F.I.F.A. arbitrarily ordered an additional play-off between the Dutch East Indies and the United States a week before the tournament in France, to be held on Ascension Day 1938 in Rotterdam. However, the United States withdrew for financial reasons (some sources state the United States withdrew because they feared to have to play on Saturdays, but the actual reason given to the F.I.F.A. in the last week of April was that the American federation had hoped to finance the trip to France with the profits from a match to be played against an English team on the occasion of the silver jubilee of the American federation; however, that match did not take place because the English refused to play on a Sunday, and therefore the American federation could not pay for the trip to Europe). Thus, the N.I.V.U. selection made its maiden appearance against eventual finalists Hungary, one of the few countries with professional football in continental Europe.
After the tournament, the team played one more international match, against the "mother country", which was not recognised by the Dutch federation as a full international in spite of the fact that the Dutch side closely corresponded to the full team (only the experimental forward line featured four uncapped players, of which only one who would never win an official international cap later).

Post-colonial era

After the second World War, the P.S.S.I. (first founded in 1930 as an ethnic football federation on Java, but dissolved by the Japanese in 1942) was resurrected in 1950 and obtained F.I.F.A. membership in 1952. The N.I.V.U. (resurrected on December 29, 1946, and renamed V.U.V.S.I./I.S.N.I.S. (Voetbal Unie in de Verenigde Staten van Indonesië/Ikatan Sepakraga Negara Indonesia Serikat) on September 18, 1948) was disbanded in 1951 after its city member federations had either joined the P.S.S.I. (Makassar, Medan), merged with their local P.S.S.I. counterparts (Semarang, Surabaja), or been dissolved (Bandung, Batavia/Djakarta). During this period there were no international matches (nor was the territory represented in F.I.F.A.), partially due to the military conflict between the Republic of Indonesia and the Netherlands. A match scheduled for June 24, 1948 between a N.I.V.U. selection and the visiting Chinese Olympic team was cancelled as permission from the Chinese National Amateur Athletic Federation based in Nanking, necessary for an official international match, was sought after too late.
For the matches of P.S.S.I. representations, see the file on Indonesia International Matches.


N.I.V.B. - List of Matches 1921-1935

NB: full international matches listed in bold face

   Date       Venue                                   Score                                Competition/Comments

28 Mar 1921   Batavia      Dutch East Indies          1-0       Singapore C.C.
19 Aug 1928   Soerabaja    Dutch East Indies          2-1 aet   Australia XI
17 Aug 1930   Batavia      Dutch East Indies          4-4       Loh Hwa (Shanghai)         Abdullah-beker (Loh Hwa won on lots)
15 Apr 1934   Batavia      Hercules/S.V.J.A.          2-3       Dutch East Indies          test match Far Eastern Games
22 Apr 1934   Soerabaja    S.V.B. (Soerabaja)         0-1       Dutch East Indies          test match Far Eastern Games
25 Apr 1934   Soerabaja    S.V.B. (Soerabaja)         3-7       Dutch East Indies          test match Far Eastern Games
13 May 1934   Manila       Dutch East Indies          7-1       Japan                      10th Far Eastern Games
14 May 1934   Manila       China                      2-0       Dutch East Indies          10th Far Eastern Games
19 May 1934   Manila       Philippines                3-2       Dutch East Indies          10th Far Eastern Games
23 May 1934   Makassar     M.V.B. (Makassar)          3-1       Dutch East Indies      
25 May 1934   Soerabaja    S.V.B. (Soerabaja)         2-0       Dutch East Indies
14 Jul 1934   Soerabaja    Dutch East Indies          1-4       Grazer Sport Club
16 Feb 1935   Manila       Univ. of the Philippines   0-6       Dutch East Indies          Philippines Championship
20 Feb 1935   Manila       American/European Y.M.C.A. 0-6       Dutch East Indies          Philippines Championship
25 Feb 1935   Manila       University of Santo Tomás  0-5       Dutch East Indies          Philippines Championship
27 Feb 1935   Manila       De la Salle College        3-1       Dutch East Indies          Philippines Championship
 4 Mar 1935   Manila       Casino Español             2-3       Dutch East Indies          Philippines Championship
 6 Mar 1935   Manila       Malaya Command (Singapore) 2-1       Dutch East Indies          Philippines Championship
 7 Mar 1935   Manila       Philippines                n/p       Dutch East Indies          Philippines could not field a team
14 Apr 1935   Soerabaja    Dutch East Indies          8-1       N.I.V.B. Chineesch XI
19 Apr 1935   Malang       V.M.O. (Malang)            1-4       Dutch East Indies          N.I.V.B. Paasch-Tournooi
20 Apr 1935   Soerabaja    Vorstenlanden XI           3-2       Dutch East Indies          N.I.V.B. Paasch-Tournooi
21 Apr 1935   Soerabaja    S.V.B. (Soerabaja)         1-4       Dutch East Indies          N.I.V.B. Paasch-Tournooi
10 Jun 1935   Malang       Dutch East Indies          2-4       Manila XI

N.I.V.U. - List of Matches 1936-1948

NB: full international matches listed in bold face

   Date       Venue                                   Score                                Competition/Comments

28 Jul 1936   Batavia      Dutch East Indies          0-2       Wiener Sport Club
25 Jan 1938   Saigon       Dutch East Indies          w/o       Japan                      World Cup 1938 qualifying; Japan scratched
26 Feb 1938   Solo         V.B.S. (Solo)              3-6       Dutch East Indies          test match World Cup 1938
27 Feb 1938   Djokjakarta  V.B.D.O. (Djokja)/reserves 1-4       Dutch East Indies          test match World Cup 1938
12 Mar 1938   Bandoeng     V.B.B.O. (Bandoeng)        4-0       Dutch East Indies          test match World Cup 1938
13 Mar 1938   Bandoeng     V.B.B.O. (Bandoeng)        2-2       Dutch East Indies          test match World Cup 1938
 2 Apr 1938   Semarang     V.S.O. (Semarang)          5-1       Dutch East Indies          test match World Cup 1938
 3 Apr 1938   Semarang     Arabisch-Inlandsch XI      1-11      Dutch East Indies          test match World Cup 1938
15 Apr 1938   Malang       M.V.U. (Malang)            2-7       Dutch East Indies          test match World Cup 1938
17 Apr 1938   Soerabaja    H.B.S.                     1-3       Dutch East Indies          test match World Cup 1938
18 Apr 1938   Soerabaja    S.V.B. (Soerabaja)         2-8       Dutch East Indies          test match World Cup 1938
24 Apr 1938   Batavia      V.B.O. (Batavia)           4-1       Dutch East Indies          test match World Cup 1938
30 Apr 1938   Medan        O.S.V.B. (Oost-Sumatra)    2-4       Dutch East Indies          test match World Cup 1938
25 May 1938   Den Haag     H.B.S.                     2-2       Dutch East Indies          
26 May 1938   Rotterdam    Dutch East Indies          w/o       United States of America   World Cup 1938 qualifying; USA scratched
31 May 1938   Haarlem      Haarlem                    3-5       Dutch East Indies          
 5 Jun 1938   Reims        Hungary                    6-0       Dutch East Indies          World Cup 1938
14 Jun 1938   Rotterdam    Sparta                     4-3       Dutch East Indies          
23 Jun 1938   Dordrecht    D.F.C.                     2-4       Dutch East Indies         
26 Jun 1938   Amsterdam    Netherlands                9-2       Dutch East Indies          [!] Olympische Dag
28 Jun 1938   Den Haag     H.V.B. (Den Haag)          2-0       Dutch East Indies     
26 Dec 1939   Bandoeng     V.B.B.O. (Bandoeng)        6-0       Dutch East Indies          interprovinciale kampioenschappen 1939         
24 Jun 1948   Batavia      Dutch East Indies          n/p       China                      no permission C.N.A.A.F.

[!] match not official for the Netherlands


Dutch East Indies - International Players
Indonesia International Matches

Dutch East Indies - Football History


About this document

Sources included: [FIF 31], many contemporary newspapers from the Dutch East Indies

Prepared and maintained by Karel Stokkermans for the Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation

Author: Karel Stokkermans (karel.rsssf@gmail.com)
Last updated: 4 Jun 2020

(C) Copyright Karel Stokkermans and RSSSF 2014/20
You are free to copy this document in whole or part provided that proper acknowledgement is given to the author. All rights reserved.