Galatama

Galatama (an acronym for Liga Sepak Bola Utama, Premier Football League) was a semi professional football league in Indonesia, established in 1979 by the Indonesian Football Association, PSSI. Prior to the establishment of the competition, an amateur football league named Perserikatan had existed since 1931. Both Perserikatan and Galatama existed and run in parallel until 1994 when they were both merged to form a new, unified league called Liga Indonesia.

Until 1979, the Perserikatan was the only national-level competition in Indonesia. The competition is an amateur competition. Starting in 1979, Football Association of Indonesia started a semi-professional league, named Liga Sepak Bola Utama (English: Premier Football League), shortened to Galatama. Galatama is one of the pioneers of professional and semi-professional football league in Asia alongside the Hong Kong League.

Throughout its history, Galatama always operated in a single-division format except for the 1983 and 1990 seasons, when it was divided into two divisions.

Until the 1982 season, Galatama allowed the recruitment of foreign players. One of the most famous foreign players in the competition is Fandi Ahmad (Singapore) who played for Niac Mitra. He successfully led his club to win the Galatama title and he also became an honorary citizen of Surabaya as an award for his performance with Niac Mitra. Fandi Ahmad and other foreign players were forced to ply their trade outside of Indonesia because of the foreign players ban imposed in Galatama.

After a few seasons, the popularity of Galatama is starting to decline. The cause of the decline is blamed on the banning of foreign players, match-fixing allegations, and also referee bribery scandals. The declining popularity of the league amongst the Indonesian football fans forced many of the league's member clubs to withdraw one by one.

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