beyondbrics

Photo: Football Federation Australia

Meanwhile, on the other side of the world… as the Bakrie group and Nat Rothschild fight over the future of coal-miner Bumi, the Indonesian congolmerate has snapped up the remaining 30 per cent it didn’t own in Australian football champions, the Brisbane Roar.

The Australian league needs investment – the sport is a distant fourth in popularity in Australia behind rugby, cricket and Australian Rules Football. The league has had to put plans to expand beyond the current 10 clubs on hold as several clubs struggle to make ends meet. Football Federation Australia has recently proposed a salary cap to curb costs.

Australia’s A-League took over from the defunct National Soccer League, which collapsed in 2004.

The Australian Football Federation welcomed the Bakrie takeover, saying that the move was a “template” for the future.

The Bakrie group said in a statement: “Our aim is to develop the Roar into Australia’s biggest club and carry that success across Asia.”

That shouldn’t be too hard. The Brisbane Roar represent something of a step up for the sporting ambitions of the Bakrie Group and its football arm, Pelita Jaya. The Brisbane club won the 2010-11 Australian league, and is third in the table for the current season. It plays at the 50,000-plus Suncorp stadium, the second biggest in the league.

The Bakrie group have other football interests: as well as a youth programme in Uruguay, Pelita Jaya, the company’s Indonesian club, have won the domestic league three times, most recently in 1994.

The other club the Bakries own is a second-division Belgian side, CS Visé, known as the Geese. Now that’s not so far from London – and Rothschild.

Related reading:
Beyondbrics sports file
Bakrie vehicle moves to oust Rothschild from Bumi, FT
Bumi: Bakrie selling a $1bn jewel, beyondbrics