Indonesia at the FIFA World Cup

Indonesia has appeared in the FIFA World Cup finals on one occasion. The nation's sole appearance took place at the 1938 tournament in France, when the team entered the competition as the Dutch East Indies, then a colony of the Netherlands. That 1938 participation remains Indonesia's only World Cup finals appearance to date.

The Dutch East Indies gained independence from the Netherlands and became known as Indonesia in 1945, and FIFA considers Indonesia as the successor of the Dutch East Indies. The Dutch East Indies played their first World Cup finals match against Hungary in the round of 16 of the 1938 tournament, losing 6–0. The straight knockout format used at the time made it the only game the team played at the tournament. Thus, Indonesia is the sole record holder for the fewest matches played (1) at a World Cup, and one of several to have scored no goals.

Dutch East Indies at the 1938 FIFA World Cup

The team was one of three non-European participants in the tournament in addition to Brazil and Cuba.

The Dutch East Indies were placed in qualifying group 12 with Japan. When Japan withdrew, FIFA decided that the Dutch East Indies would have to play against one of the countries from group 11. The United States was selected by lot. This match would be played on 29 May 1938 in Rotterdam, at De Kuip. However, the United States also withdrew, meaning that the Dutch East Indies qualified for the final round without playing.^[1]^[2]^[3]

In preparation for the tournament, the team made a long boat trip to the Netherlands to train at HBS in The Hague. A practice match against HBS was also played, which ended in a 2–2 draw. Furthermore, there was a friendly match against Haarlem, and this match ended in a 5–3 victory for the Dutch East Indies.

Because the Netherlands also took part, the Wilhelmus, the national anthem of the Netherlands, was heard twice at the event. The team consisted only of players from the Nederlandsch-Indische Voetbal Unie (NIVU) and the Dutch association chairman Johannes Mastenbroek acted as trainer. The PSSI (Indonesia's current football federation), which the NIVU collaborated with, was not represented and among the players there were several of Chinese descent.

The team head coach Johannes Mastenbroek called to the tournament consisted of the following players:

Name	Club	Particularities
Mo Heng Tan	HCTNH (Malang)
Achmad Nawir	HBS (Surabaya)
Hong Djien Tan	Tiong Hwa (Surabaya)
French Meeng	SVBB (Batavia)
Tjaak Pattiwael	Young Ambon (Batavia)
Hans Taihuttu	Young Ambon (Batavia)
Suvarte Soedarmadji	HBS (Surabaya)
Anwar Sutan	VIOS (Batavia)
Henk Zomers	Hercules (Surabaya)
French Hukom	Sparta (Bandoeng)
Jack Samuels	Excelsior (Surabaya)
Leen van Beuzekom	Hercules (Batavia)	Didn't play along
Jan Harting	HBS (Surabaya)	Didn't play along
Mo Heng Bing	Tiong Hwa (Surabaya)	Didn't play along
Gerrit Faulhaber	Go Ahead (Semarang)	Didn't play along
Rudi Telwe	HBS (Surabaya)	Didn't play along
See Han Tan	Tiong Hwa (Surabaya)	Didn't play along
G. van den Burgh	SVV (Semarang)	Didn't play along

The Dutch East Indies only played one match at the tournament, with the 6–0 defeat against Hungary eliminating them in the first round.

Hungary v Dutch East Indies

5 June 1938

17:00 WEST (UTC+01)

Hungary	6–0	Dutch East Indies
Kohut 14' Toldi 16' Sárosi 25', 88' Zsengellér 30', 67'	Report

Vélodrome Municipal, Reims

Attendance: ~8,000

Referee: Roger Conrié (France)

Hungary

Dutch East Indies


GK		József Háda
DF		Lajos Korányi
DF		Sándor Bíró
MF		József Turay
MF		Gyula Lázár
MF		István Balogh
FW		Géza Toldi
FW		György Sárosi (c)
FW		Ferenc Sas
FW		Gyula Zsengellér
FW		Vilmos Kohut
Manager:
Károly Dietz and Alfréd Schaffer


GK		Mo Heng Tan
DF		Frans Hu Kon
DF		Jack Samuels
MF		Achmad Nawir (c)
MF		Frans Meeng
MF		Sutan Anwar
FW		The Hong Djien
FW		Isaak Pattiwael
FW		Hans Taihuttu
FW		Suvarte Soedarmadji
FW		Henk Zomers
Manager:
Johannes Mastenbroek

Man of the Match:

Assistant referees:
Charles de la Salle (France)
Karl Weingartner (Germany)

Afterwards

After the World Cup, the Dutch East Indies played on 26 June 1938 against the Netherlands, losing 9–2. This match is not considered an official match. Two days later, they lost 2–0 to the Hague selection.

The 1938 participation was, as of the 2026 World Cup, the only one in the history of Indonesia. The Dutch East Indies gained independence in 1945 as Indonesia, and the Netherlands recognised Indonesia's independence in 1949. After independence, Indonesia has never managed to qualify for the FIFA World Cup.

The team took part in their first World Cup qualifying campaign as Indonesia in the qualification for the 1958 tournament. They got past China in the first round, but refused to play against Israel. The team withdrew in 1962, and did not enter qualifying for 1966 and 1970 due to an unfavourable political situation, before re-entering in 1974. The team has not qualified as an independent country, going furthest in the qualification in 1986 and 2026.

Overall record

Final										Qualification
Year	Round	Position	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	Squad	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA
as Dutch East Indies
1930	Did not enter									Did not enter
1934	Did not enter									Did not enter
1938	Round of 16	15th	1	0	0	1	0	6	Squad	Automatically qualified
as Indonesia
1950	Withdrew									Withdrew
1954	Did not enter									Did not enter
1958	Withdrew during qualification									3	1	1	1	5	4
1962	Withdrew									Withdrew
1966	Did not enter									Did not enter
1970	Did not enter									Did not enter
1974	Did not qualify									6	1	2	3	6	13
1978										4	1	1	2	7	7
1982										8	2	2	4	5	14
1986										8	4	1	3	9	10
1990										6	1	3	2	5	10
1994										8	1	0	7	6	19
1998										6	1	4	1	11	6
2002										6	4	0	2	16	7
2006										6	2	1	3	8	12
2010										2	0	0	2	1	11
2014										8	1	1	6	8	30
2018	Disqualified due to FIFA suspension									Disqualified
2022	Did not qualify									8	0	1	7	5	27
2026	Did not qualify									In progress
2030	To be determined									To be determined
2034	To be determined									To be determined
Total	Round of 16	15th	1	0	0	1	0	6	–	79	19	17	43	92	170

By match

World Cup	Round	Opponent	Score	Result	Venue	Scorers
1938	Round of 16	Hungary	0–6	L	Reims	—

Record by opponent

FIFA World Cup matches (by team)
Opponent	Wins	Draws	Losses	Total	Goals Scored	Goals Conceded
Hungary	0	0	1	1	0	6

References

[1] ttp://web.archive.org/web/20071105071925/http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/archive/edition=5/results/matches/match=1173/report.html

[2] ttps://footballmakeshistory.eu/the-dutch-east-indies-a-colonial-team-at-a-world-cup/

[3] ttps://inside.fifa.com/tournaments/mens/worldcup/1938france/news/dutch-east-indies--asias-first-world-cup-participants-3073794

[1]

[2]

[3]

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