Reuters
Bahrain's controversial equalizer last week sparked online abuse from Indonesian fans
The Bahrain national football team has said it will not play a World Cup qualifying match in Indonesia to “protect the security” of the team.
Players from the Gulf country were subject to online death threats from Indonesian fans following a controversial 2-2 draw between the two countries' teams last week, according to the Bahrain FA football (BFA).
The second leg 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 Federation (PSSI) nor Fifa have made any public comments.
The controversy erupted last Thursday after Bahrain equalized in the 99th minute against Indonesia, three minutes after its players expected the match to end.
The goal sparked strong protests from Indonesian players and staff, one of whom had to be separated from officials and sent off.
The Indonesian Football Federation claimed that the referee, Ahmed Al Kaf of Oman, deliberately let the match continue until Bahrain managed to score.
Just before the end of the standard 90 minutes, referees will usually indicate how much time they will add to the match in order to make up for stoppages in play.
In this case, Al Kaf indicated six additional minutes. Bahrain scored after nine hours.
Although controversial, the laws of the game state that extra time is only a minimum and that referees have the right to increase this amount if necessary.
“We are very disappointed with the arbitration,” said PSSI executive member Arya Sinulingga.
“It looked like they extended injury time just to allow Bahrain to equalize.”
After the match, the PSSI said it had lodged an official complaint with Fifa and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).
Death threats
The following 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 posing as Ahmed Al Kaf.
Many fans claimed the Omani referee intentionally favored another Gulf country by allowing the match to continue. After the match, the Indonesian coach called Al Kaf “biased” in favor of Bahrain.
The abuse sparked 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 extreme surprise at the multiple death threats received by team members on their social media accounts – a decision that reflects the Indonesian public's disregard for human lives,” it said. declared in a press release published on Instagram.
“It does not belong to Islamic principles, values and norms, nor does it reflect the progress and advancement of the countries.”
As a result, the BFA said it requested that the Jakarta match be moved outside Indonesia because it “refuses to expose the lives of team members to any potential danger.”
Crowd disturbances are a major problem in Indonesian football, where authorities often struggle to contain violence between groups of fans.
Two years ago, Indonesia suffered one of the world's worst stadium disasters when 125 people were killed in a crush sparked by an invasion of a supporters' ground in the town of Malang.
Bahrain, ranked 76th in the world, will face China in their next World Cup qualifier next month.
Indonesia, ranked 129th, will face Japan next November.
