Survey: Majority of Citizens Approve of Naturalizing National Team Players

According to an Indikator survey, a majority of Indonesians agree with the policy of naturalizing players for the Indonesian national football team.

Naturalized players are foreign athletes with Indonesian ancestry who are sworn in as Indonesian citizens to play for the national team.

71.5% of respondents agreed with this policy. Specifically, 60.9% stated agreement and 10.6% strongly agreed.

Only 13.5% of respondents disagreed, comprising 10.1% who somewhat disagreed and 3.4% who strongly disagreed.

The survey also asked public opinion regarding the number of naturalized players in the Indonesian national football team.

The results showed that 54.5% of respondents did not have a problem with it, as long as it improved the nation's football performance.

However, 31.5% of respondents considered the number of naturalized players to be excessive, and that the national team should prioritize native Indonesian players.

"Generally, they agree. But when it comes to the number of naturalized players playing for the Indonesian national team, there's a shift in attitude," said Burhanuddin Muhtadi, lead researcher at Indikator Politik, in an online presentation of the survey on Tuesday, November 5, 2024.

The survey involved 1,200 respondents spread across Indonesia, with criteria of being over 17 years old or married. Respondents were selected using multistage random sampling.

Data collection was conducted from October 10-15, 2024, through face-to-face interviews using questionnaires. The survey's margin of error is approximately 2.9% at a 95% confidence level.