Indonesian Football: A Bibliometric Analysis and Perspectives

Abstract

Background Football is one of the most popular sports in Indonesia, where millions of people follow the game. In spite of its popularity, Indonesia has little information about the sport from the academic sector. This study gap is concerning because it limits the scholars’ ability to comprehend the effects of the sport on Indonesian society, culture, and the economy. Methods The formulation of plans and programs to raise the caliber and level of competition in Indonesian football is also hampered by a lack of research. In order to give some insights into how academics have so far researched Indonesian football, we undertook a bibliometric study. This article also discusses the difficulty of incorporating a sports context into the literature on social ecosystems, adding contribution by integrating ideas from previous works of literature. To get a deeper understanding of the growth of Indonesian football literature in the 2000s and 2010s, we performed a bibliometric study of football publications in several databases. Results The issues raised in this study will be considered in light of recent advancements in sports science, society, and technology. Conclusion We inferred numerous relevant subject clusters from this study, such as “training,” “competition,” and “development.” The implications of the research and its potential for future directions are also discussed in this article.