Persibo Bojonegoro

History

The club was established on 12 March 1949, on the initiative of Raden Tumenggung Sukardi who served as Regent of Bojonegoro at that time. Once inactive in the 1960s, the team starting to compete once again in the Indonesian footballing pyramid during the new millennium in 2000, where the team's best achievement was crowned as champions of Divisi Dua Liga Indonesia in the 2003–04 season and promoted to Divisi Satu Liga Indonesia. After only two seasons in the league, in the 2007–08 season, the club once again emerged as Divisi Satu Liga Indonesia champions and earned promotion, this time to the Divisi Utama.

In their first season in the second tier of Indonesian football, the team nicknamed Laskar Angling Dharma made a big surprise in the Copa Indonesia tournament, after they caused some upsets by defeating three teams from Indonesia's top-flight, namely Arema Indonesia, Persik Kediri, and Pelita Jaya to advance to the last eight of the prestigious tournament which brought together teams across three divisions. At the same time, the national football public was shocked and began to reckon with them, in doing so dubbed the team as The Giant Killer.

Persibo managed to win 2009-10 Liga Joss Indonesia after defeating Deltras FC in the final match, thus successfully qualifying for the 2011 Indonesian Super League with Deltras FC as runner-up and Semen Padang FC who won third place. After playing several matches at Indonesia Super League, precisely at the end of December 2010 Persibo decided to jump the ship and join the Indonesian Premier League which at that time was a breakaway league thus the club was sanctioned which meant that Persibo Bojonegoro was banned from participating in any PSSI activities and had to be thrown into Divisi Satu Liga Indonesia the following season. However, Persibo's membership status was restored along with Persema Malang, Persebaya Surabaya and PSM Makassar by the PSSI Executive Committee (Exco) in the third Exco meeting on Monday, 15 August 2011 at the PSSI Senayan Office Jakarta.

The lifting of these sanctions gave a way for Persibo to take part in the assistance of the PSSI professional league for the 2011–12 season and compete with clubs from Indonesian Super League and Divisi Satu Liga Indonesia to professionalize. From the results of this assistance, Persibo was registered as one of the 24 clubs entitled to compete at level 1 of the Indonesian pro league which was later named Indonesian Premier League or Liga Prima Indonesia. In the 2011–12 season, Persibo was among 13 teams taking part in the Indonesian Premier League, which at the time is the highest tier in Indonesian football.

In 2012, Persibo became the champions of Piala Indonesia after defeating Semen Padang FC in the final. That result gave them the right to take part in the next season AFC Cup. Unfortunately the following season, the club would become a mere punching bag in the group containing the likes of Sun Hei SC of Hong Kong, New Radiant SC of Maldives, Yangon United FC of Myanmar; collecting just a single point from 5 matches and allowing 39 goals in the process. On top of that, the club were in the middle of a severe financial crisis which ultimately led to their eventual demise and relegation to the lowest tier of Indonesian football at the time, Liga Nusantara.

For several years after relegation to Liga Nusantara (which would later rebranded as Liga 3), the club was simply inactive due to several things, partly for financial reason and being banned by PSSI for breaking away from the official competition during the 2011 schism in the federation (commonly referred to as Dualisme, Dualism). Their membership status was finally restored in PSSI Extraordinary Congress 2017, which granted them a spot to compete in the Regional phase of 2017–18 Liga 3 East Java Region.

In 2023–24, after several years in the third tier, Persibo secured promotion to Liga 2 for the first time in more than a decade after finishing as one of the top 3 teams in their National phase Liga 3 group. They progressed as far as the National phase final, where they were beaten by Adhyaksa Farmel.

Unfortunately, Persibo Bojonegoro was only able to survive one season in Liga 2. They were relegated back to Liga Nusantara (3rd tier of Indonesian football) after losing 2–1 against Persipura Jayapura in the relegation playoff.

Staff & coaching

Manager history

• Indonesia Jamrawi (2001–2003)
• Indonesia Sanusi Rahman (2003–2006)
• Indonesia Hanafi (2006)
• Indonesia Gusnul Yakin (2006–2008)
• Indonesia Sartono Anwar (2008–2010)
• Brazil Paulo Camargo (2011–2012)
• Indonesia Gusnul Yakin (2013)
• Indonesia Bambang Pramudji (2014–2017)
• Indonesia I Putu Gede (2017)
• Indonesia Jordi Kartiko (2018)
• Indonesia Muhammad Nadhief (2019–2020)
• Indonesia Muhammad Fahrudin (2021)
• Indonesia Masdra Nurriza (2022)
• Indonesia Adnan Mahing (2023)
• Indonesia Iwan Setiawan (2023–2024)
• Indonesia I Putu Gede (2024)
• Indonesia Regi Aditya (2024)
• Indonesia Kahudi Wahyu (2024–2025)
• Indonesia Iwan Setiawan (2025–now)

Players

Current squad

Former foreign players

AFC

• Australia Adam Harrys
• Australia Kim Harrys
• China Li Zhixing
• East Timor Adelino Oliveira
• Iran Amir Amadeh
• Iran Taher Jahanbakhsh
• Malaysia Stanley Bernard
• South Korea Kim Kang-hyun
• South Korea Han Ji-ho
• Syria Muhammad Albicho
• Turkmenistan Mekan Nasyrow

CONMEBOL

• Argentina Gustavo Ortiz
• Argentina Julio Alcorsé
• Argentina Marcelo Cirelli
• Brazil Carlos Eduardo
• Brazil Jairon Feliciano
• Brazil Lexe
• Brazil Victor da Silva
• Brazil Wallacer

CAF

• CIV Eugène Dadi
• Liberia Amos Marah
• Liberia Abel Cielo Quioh
• Liberia Alexander Robinson
• LBR Joseph Amoah
• Liberia Morris Bayour Power
• Liberia Perry Kollie
• Liberia Varney Pas Boakay

UEFA

• France Enzo Célestine
• Portugal Vítor Barata

Season-by-season records

Performance in AFC competitions

Honours

Domestic

League

• Liga Indonesia Premier Division
  • Winners (1): 2009–10
• Liga Indonesia First Division
  • Winners (1): 2007
• Liga Indonesia Second Division
  • Winners: 2004
• Liga 3
  • Runners-up: 2023–24
• Liga 3 East Java
  • Winners: 2023–24

Cups

• Piala Indonesia
  • Winners: 2012
• Community Shield
  • Runners-up: 2013

AFC (Asian competitions)

• AFC Cup
  • 2013 – Group stage

Supporters

Persibo Bojonegoro has always enjoyed loyal and passionate support. Most fans come from Bojonegoro and the surrounding area, around western part of East Java. They called themselves as Boromania or Bojonegoro Mania. In the past, they had a bitter rivalry with the supporters club of Persela Lamongan, LA Mania. Interestingly however, Boromania have a very good relationship with the two largest groups of supporters in East Java who shared a long history of hostility towards one another, namely Bonek of Persebaya Surabaya and Aremania of Arema FC.

References

References

1. "Data Persibo Bojonegoro | Persibo Bojonegoro - Boromania".
2. (9 July 2020). "Mengingat Perjalanan Persibo ke Tangga Juara Divisi Utama 1 Dekade Lalu".
3. (31 March 2021). "Mengenang Kisah Miris Persibo Bojonegoro di Piala AFC 2013".
4. [https://ileague.id/clubs/single/LIGA_NUSANTARA_2025-26/PERSIBO_Bojonegoro Daftar pemain tim Persibo Bojonegoro]. ileague.id.
5. Strack-Zimmermann, Benjamin. "NFT player — National team & Club appearances: Amoah, Joseph". National Football Teams.
6. (29 May 2010). "Persibo Bojonegoro Juara Divisi Utama".
7. (12 March 2021). "72 Tahun Persibo: Semua Pernah Juara, yang Belum Kasta Tertinggi".
8. (14 July 2012). "Tekuk Semen Padang, Persibo Juara Piala Indonesia".
9. (10 February 2013). "Babat Persibo 4-1, Semen Padang Juara Community Shield 2013".
10. (10 January 2013). "Suporter Persibo Mulai Bereaksi".