HISTORY OF THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE INDO TOON ARMY
The history of the Indonesian Toon Army (Indo Toon Army / ITA) began in mid-1999 by one of the diehard supporters of Newcastle United, Eddy Suryadi. Armed with a personal website (http://www.geocities.com/~shearyadi/) equipped with discussion forum facilities. However, at that time, not many Newcastle United supporters were active in cyberspace. Due to the busyness of each member and the declining performance of Newcastle United, over time the site's visitors decreased and suspended animation. On a night in July 2006, Agung Sukmono, who is also a diehard Newcastle United supporter, was looking for information about the whereabouts of the Newcastle United supporter base in Indonesia and accidentally found the site. by Didon Danisworo, who happened to be a member of the mailing list that was previously founded by Uncle Eddy, unfortunately this mailing list is no longer active considering that not all members actively use email.
One thing that distinguishes Newcastle United fans in Indonesia from others is that the kinship within ITA is very strong because it is like finding a lost family. . Armed with a free online web forum, on July 2 2006, the goal of gathering Newcastle United supporters spread across Indonesia began through the http://indotoonarmy.proboards.com/ forum. The development of the Internet world in Indonesia has a very large role, slowly the database of old members owned by uncle Eddy began to be contacted one by one via email and social networks, assisted by the Friendster site (http://www.friendster.com/indotoonarmy) slowly the number supporters who had always been alone began to gather.
One thing that distinguishes Newcastle United supporters in Indonesia from others is due to the status of Newcastle United which is not a top team with brilliant achievements so that the kinship within ITA is very strong because it is like finding a lost family. The feeling of having to face other top teams has disappeared and been replaced by the songs and ups and downs together when watching together.
Starting from Jakarta, continuing with Bandung and Jogjakarta. Assisted by several senior members, a regional coordinator was started to be chosen in order to continue to spread its wings so that more and more members would be recruited. Rangga Yudha as the Jakarta Coordinator, Aryo Bimo as the Bandung coordinator and Gilang Ramado as the Jogjakarta coordinator. Activities that are routinely carried out are watching together, futsal sports and other social activities. In fact, ITA also actively establishes communication with NUFC-SG, the Newcastle United supporter base in Singapore which was also initiated by Indonesian citizens in Singapore.
In February 2006 ITA received an invitation to join the Premier League Indonesia Fans Association (PLIFA) which was initiated by the football magazine FourFourTwo Indonesia which aims to combine Supporter Clubs in Indonesia in a platform to build togetherness. PLIFA itself consists of Chelsea Indonesia Supporter Club (CISC), Indo Spurs, Indo Man Utd, Arsenal Indonesian Supporter (AIS), Big Reds (Liverpool) and Indo Toon Army. Various events from watching together, sports to social activities are carried out together for the next 1.5 years. Simultaneously with the transfer of the rights to publish FourFourTwo in Indonesia in September 2008, PLIFA's activities were decreasing and becoming a vacuum. However, outside of PLIFA, the kinship that has been established makes it easy for all Supporter Clubs to continue joint activities to date.
In 2009 ITA members reached 400 members consisting of 4 regions, Jakarta, Bandung, Jogjakarta and Semarang, joined and regularly established communication. The family aspect which has been upheld so far has been maintained, therefore ITA is not known as an organization but rather the principle of kinship builds the basic foundation of ITA. Through the Facebook networking site (user: Indo Toon Army) there are currently more than 700 members who actively discuss almost every day and 400 members on the Web Forum.
In 2011, concurrent with ITA's first National Gathering with the theme "Toon Army For Solidarity", ITA entered a new era towards a more professional organization. At the National Gathering, a new ITA management structure was elected with Gilang Ramado – Hamiriza Triwardhana as the General Chair – the new Deputy General Chair. In 2011, ITA had 6 ITA Regions, namely Jakarta with coordinator Mochamad Cahyadi, Bandung with coordinator Ahmad Z Sidiq, Jogjakarta with coordinator Alex Zubaedi, Semarang with coordinator Falik Hutasuhut, Medan with coordinator Abram P Ginting, and Bogor with coordinator Muhammad Alfath T. As well as several other regions which are in the process of being established such as Solo, Malang, Makassar, Bali, Lampung and Surabaya.
Currently, ITA's status has been recognized by Newcastle United FC with the inclusion of the ITA web forum on the official Newcastle United FC website (http://www.nufc.co.uk/page/Fans/FanSites) and slowly making efforts for ITA's status as the Official Supporter Group keep going, hopefully in 2012 it is hoped that this business will be successful and ITA will become part of the International Supporter Group which is officially affiliated with Newcastle United FC United Kingdom.
source:soccerklopedia