Bahrain won’t play football in Indonesia on safety grounds

Bahrain’s national football team says it will not play a World Cup qualifying fixture in Indonesia, to “protect the safety” of the team.

The Gulf nation’s players were subjected to online death threats from Indonesian fans following a controversial 2-2 draw between both countries’ teams last week, according to the Bahrain Football Association (BFA).

The return fixture is scheduled to take place in Jakarta in March next year, but the BFA has asked Fifa to move the match to a venue outside Indonesia.

Neither the Indonesian Football Association (PSSI) nor Fifa have publicly commented on Bahrain’s request.

Controversy erupted last Thursday after Bahrain scored a 99th minute equaliser against Indonesia – a full three minutes after their players had expected the game to end.

The goal sparked wild protests from Indonesia’s players and staff, one of whom had to be separated from officials and was sent off.

Indonesia’s football association alleged that the referee, Oman’s Ahmed Al Kaf, deliberately allowed the match to go on until Bahrain managed to score.

Just before the end of the standard 90 minutes, referees will typically indicate how much time they will add onto the match in order to make up for stoppages during the game.

In this case, Al Kaf indicated an extra six minutes. Bahrain scored after nine.

While controversial, the laws of the game state that indicated additional time is only a minimum, and referees are entitled to increase the amount if necessary.

“We are very disappointed with the refereeing,” said PSSI executive member Arya Sinulingga.

“It seemed like they extended the added time just to allow Bahrain to score an equaliser.”

Following the match, the PSSI says it submitted an official complaint to both Fifa and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).

The subsequent days saw a torrent of online abuse from Indonesian football fans, who flooded the AFC’s social media pages with criticism and created fake accounts impersonating Ahmed Al Kaf.

Many fans alleged that the Omani referee had intentionally favoured a fellow Gulf nation by allowing the match to continue. After the game, Indonesia’s manager called Al Kaf “biased” towards Bahrain.

The abuse prompted a strong response from the BFA, which had to disable comments on its social media posts and said its website was repeatedly targeted by hackers in Indonesia.

“[The BFA] expresses its extreme surprise at the multiple death threats received by the team members on their social media accounts – a move that reflects the Indonesian public’s disregard for human lives,” it said in a statement posted on Instagram.

“It does not belong to the principles, values and Islamic norms, nor does it reflect the progress and advancement of countries.”

As a result, the BFA said it had requested the return fixture in Jakarta to be moved outside Indonesia because it “refuses to expose the lives of the team members to any potential danger”.

If the BFA’s request is denied and Bahrain refuse to play the fixture, then Indonesia would be awarded an automatic 3-0 win.

Crowd trouble is a major issue in Indonesian football, where authorities have often struggled to contain violence between supporter groups.

Two years ago, Indonesia saw one of the world’s worst ever stadium disasters when 125 people were killed in a crush that was triggered by a fan pitch invasion in the city of Malang.

Bahrain and Indonesia have history when it comes to controversial encounters.

In 2012, the Gulf nation beat Indonesia 10-0 in a World Cup qualifier, which raised suspicions because Bahrain had needed to make up a nine-goal deficit on rivals Qatar in the group standings to have a chance of advancing to the next round.

The bizarre scoreline prompted a Fifa investigation into potential match-fixing, but both sides were eventually cleared.

Bahrain, who are currently ranked 76th in the world, face China in their next World Cup qualifying match next month.

Indonesia, ranked 129th, play Japan next in November.