Pre-Season Piala Presiden 25 - was it a success?

[Northstandboy]

So was the 2025 Piala Presiden a success?

What were your pros and cons?

For me:

Pros:
Getting the club hitting the Indonesia market.
How serious the comp was (VAR, FIFA referees).
Locals engagement.
Seeing how the fans love Romney and Ferdinan.
Winning 125k.
Some of the youngsters getting game time.


Cons:
Injury to Romeny.
Lack of playing time for Romeny and Ferdinan.
Floodlight failure.
Monsoon weather in the final leading to a lethal pitch.
The travel too/from Indonesia.
Losing the final.

It’s a very slim yes for me. Maybe because of the pomp and ceremony.

 

[Carpy]

On a footballing level, most definitely not.

On a marketing and exposure level, somewhat.

 

[Osleroad]

50/50

 

[East Stand Fan]

Started off very positively especially with the kids from the orphanage and the fun couple days before the first match. Great experience for the locals and everyone involved at the club. Since the Romeny injury, it all went a bit sour and I'll be glad just to have the team back landed with no risk of further injuries or negative PR.

Next season we'll stick to Eastleigh and Oxford City hopefully.

 

[Sarge]

50/50

yep, about right - if they want non asian clubs to take part in future tournaments, pitches AND officials need to be much better than they were for this one. Hold the final in the national stadium( with its retractable roof) as well as get to grips with how VAR should be used & utilised

 

[Northstandboy]

Started off very positively especially with the kids from the orphanage and the fun couple days before the first match. Great experience for the locals and everyone involved at the club. Since the Romeny injury, it all went a bit sour and I'll be glad just to have the team back landed with no risk of further injuries or negative PR.

Next season we'll stick to Eastleigh and Oxford City hopefully.

If we’d had won this, I wonder if we would have had to play again next season to defend it?

 

[Colin B]

Gary Rowett says "No it fucking wasn't!!! Next season we'll do things my way"

 

[MiddleBartonYellow]

The bottom line is our owners want us to do it, I don’t think the results mean that much to be honest.
From what I’ve seen the pitches are at the level of the local park with monsoon conditions thrown in.

 

[Oxymoron]

For ensuring that the seemingly bottomless money pit keeps providing the club with the necessary funds, it was a 100% success. Turn down next seasons invite in order to play at Court Farm Place and the future might not be as rosy as you think.

 

[ZeroTheHero]

As I said in the other thread - a curate's egg for me: some good bits and some bad bits. On a personal level, I quite enjoyed some of it. The officiating was poor throughout though.

I suspect that in the end (apart maybe from Romeny's injury), it will have little effect on the season to come and the players probably enjoyed it more than a week of bleep tests!

 

[Steve Gilbert]

For the owners, yes it was. From a football perspective no it wasn’t.
Conditions of the pitches both for matches and training looked poor at best, the amount of knocks to players is also a downside and something that comes with travelling across the world and training in unfamiliar weather conditions. That and playing teams who just want to kick lumps out of you.
I would also guess that Rowett hasn’t been that impressed with it considering the club never put up a post match interview with him after the 2nd game, nor was there any preview of the final with him.

The thing that probably sums up how it went was the fact that neither of our faces of the tournament were involved in the final.

 

[unification]

No. We didn’t win it.

That’s a reasonable chunk of money left on the table.

The Romeny injury compounds it.

 

[Orkney Islands Yellow]

From a footballing perspective I think it probably went on too long and the conditions were difficult. The injury to Romeny is a blow

Hopefully it would've been good for team bonding and it's been great PR. Hopefully it'll keep the board enthused.

 

[Stranger]

Gary Rowett says "No it fucking wasn't!!! Next season we'll do things my way"

"If that's okay with you, Erick"

 

[Essexyellows]

Its all about exposure to the Indonesian market for the man who writes the cheques..............281 million folk live there...... if 20,000 of them sign up for iFollow.....

 

[OxfordBoy]

Its all about exposure to the Indonesian market for the man who writes the cheques..............281 million folk live there...... if 20,000 of them sign up for iFollow.....

The average yearly salary there is £140…

 

[Steve Gilbert]

It’s all about exposure to the Indonesian market for the man who writes the cheques..............281 million folk live there...... if 20,000 of them sign up for iFollow.....

If 20000 Indonesian’s sign up for iFollow then our marketing team really do need the sack since iFollow doesn’t exist any more

 

[Northstandboy]

Snowdon wins best young player. Not many can say they have that trophy.

 

[Northstandboy]

Sparky golden boot gets a medal and a cheque.

 

[Orkney Islands Yellow]

For ensuring that the seemingly bottomless money pit keeps providing the club with the necessary funds, it was a 100% success. Turn down next seasons invite in order to play at Court Farm Place and the future might not be as rosy as you think.

Exactly. The club is being funded better than it ever has been and I'm grateful to them for doing so so I have no problems with this tour for that reason. Plus the owners are football fanatics which I prefer over an American hedge fund.

 

[Royalstandard74]

It’s a No from me, two weeks wasted on proper preseason preparation, get the lads home and start fresh from there.hopefully this tournament hasn’t put us behind.

 

[Orkney Islands Yellow]

 

[Jster]

Nah, come on - it was something different - the Romeny injury the only real bad news.

 

[Steve Gilbert]

It’s a No from me, two weeks wasted on proper preseason preparation, get the lads home and start fresh from there.hopefully this tournament hasn’t put us behind.

I am pretty sure that the team doing fitness training sessions in Indonesia is just the same as doing them in the UK, if anything the players will be fitter for it due to having to train/play in the heat and humidity.

I assume you said the same when the team went to Spain or Austria?

 

[Royalstandard74]

I am pretty sure that the team doing fitness training sessions in Indonesia is just the same as doing them in the UK, if anything the players will be fitter for it due to having to train/play in the heat and humidity.

I assume you said the same when the team went to Spain or Austria?

I hope you’re right, I would rather have the comforts of our own training ground and treatment room. Indonesia, Spain or Austria, I would feel the same.

 

[carefreeoufc]

Loved seeing the players frolicking in the pool. 100% success for me.

 

[Berliner]

I'm in two minds. On one hand one of our players has broken his leg (?), but on the other hand we had Rowett riding a f*cking lion.

Swings and roundabouts.

 

[Bornyellow]

The truth is I don’t think we’ll ever know for sure how successful this tour was on a commercial level. I’d say from the managers point of view it was far from ideal. And given the injuries suffered it could also have serious consequences for those behind the decision, I suspect Eric Thohir will be very annoyed how things have unfolded given the importance of OR to the Indonesian FA. Like others have said though as long as we’re kept afloat by Thohir I really don’t see we’ll have much of a say in it, however if we do return they’re are clearly a lot of things that need improving. I suspect once the board approve yet another record signing then the negatives of this tour will be smoothed over fairly quickly.

 

[JerryL]

Im glad people are still feeling positive about it, but i cant help but be a bit embarrassed by the final game putting a literal dampener on it. losing to a ten man team we're supposed to be levels above just feels bad no matter how its spun and i wonder what we've made them think of english football when they witnessed us playing so anaemically... i cant remember the last time a pre season game rankled me so much & im genuinely a lot more annoyed by it than i should be

I feel like a handful of players i was already not keen on really solidified my feelings about them, it woulda been nice if theyd have took the chance they were given BUT I really liked getting to see deer smacker, i liked the indonesian fans and the festive atmosphere was something you wouldn't get in a pre season closer to home

Overall im really mixed about it, I'd quite like some banging signings to wash the taste of disappointment away

 

[Eric Blair]

This photo will become as iconic as the Christmas Ciaron Brown one. So, yes, it was worth it.