Jakarta. Mitra Kukar coach Scott Cooper bemoaned the chaos in Indonesian football after paperwork problems robbed him of four players and they lost their delayed season opener against a team the government wanted banned.

The English coach's preparation for Sunday's fixture against Persebaya Surabaya were disrupted when he was told hours before kick-off four of his squad were not eligible to play.

Despite a valiant effort by the understudies, his side fell to a 1-0 defeat against a club who failed to pass the government's new ownership viability tests.

"It was quite disappointing that I couldn't field my best starting eleven in the game because four of my players can't play due to an administration problem," Cooper told Football Channel Asia on Monday.

"I couldn't do anything other than made an experimental line-up as you saw because we don't have many players who were ready, even on the bench.

"I hope they can handle it more professionally and obviously I do not want it to happen again in the future, because it can disrupt the team preparation."

The new Super League season was to kick-off the in February but a review to determine the health and credibility of the 18 clubs by a government body delayed that by six weeks until Saturday.

The Indonesian Professional Sports Agency (BOPI), sanctioned by the Youth and Sports Ministry, only gave the green light to just five clubs last week but allowed 11 others, including Mitra Kukar, to take part if they agreed to further reviews later in the campaign.

They advised that Persebaya and Arema Indonesia be removed from the crisis-hit league, where a Paraguayan player died of a treatable illness in 2012 after being left broke when a club failed to pay his wages for months.

But ISL officials, having seen their championship reduced already from 22 teams last year, backed their clubs and refused BOPI recommendations leading to both sides threatening legal action and world governing body FIFA warning the government-backed arm to stay away.

Against the messy backdrop, Arema Indonesia opened their campaign by snatching a point in an enthralling 4-4 draw at home to Persija Jakarta on Saturday after a Fabiano Da Rosa penalty in stoppage time.

BOPI wade in again on Sunday, voicing their unhappiness at the two teams playing and warning all clubs of stern action if any failed to secure the correct work visas for foreign players.

Reuters