JAKARTA, Oct 17 — Bahrain’s national football team has refused to play their scheduled World Cup qualifying match in Indonesia next March, citing safety concerns after players received online death threats from Indonesian fans, BBC reported.
According to the news report, the threats emerged following a controversial 2-2 draw between the two nations last week, in which Bahrain scored a 99th-minute equaliser, sparking outrage among Indonesian supporters. Bahrain’s Football Association (BFA) has since asked Fifa to move the match to a neutral venue outside Indonesia.
The controversy started after Omani referee Ahmed Al Kaf added nine minutes of stoppage time, allowing Bahrain to level the score. The Indonesian Football Association (PSSI) accused the referee of deliberately prolonging the match to favour Bahrain, BBC reported.
PSSI executive Arya Sinulingga expressed his disappointment with the officiating.
“It seemed like they extended the added time just to allow Bahrain to score an equaliser,” he was quoted saying.
Following the game, Indonesian fans flooded social media with abuse directed at Bahrain and the referee, prompting the BFA to disable comments on its posts.
The association condemned the death threats as a “disregard for human lives” and called for the Jakarta fixture to be relocated to protect its players.
Indonesia has a history of crowd trouble in football, with one of the world’s deadliest stadium disasters occurring in 2022 in Malang, where 125 people were killed following a pitch invasion.
Neither Fifa nor the PSSI have publicly commented on the situation, but Bahrain is set to face China in their next qualifier, while Indonesia plays Japan in November, according to BBC.
