Bahrain will not play football in Indonesia for “security reasons”.

The Bahrain national football team announced that it will not play a World Cup qualifier in Indonesia to “ensure the safety” of the team.

According to the Bahrain Football Association (BFA), the Gulf state’s players faced online death threats from Indonesian fans following the controversial 2-2 draw between the two countries’ teams last week.

The second leg is scheduled to take place in Jakarta in March next year, but the BFA has asked FIFA to move the game to a venue outside Indonesia.

Neither the Indonesian Football Association (PSSI) nor FIFA have commented publicly.

Last Thursday, controversy erupted after Bahrain equalized against Indonesia in the 99th minute – a full three minutes after the players expected the game to be over.

The goal sparked wild protests from Indonesian players and staff, one of whom had to be separated by officials and sent off.

The Indonesian Football Association claimed that the referee, Ahmed Al Kaf of Oman, deliberately continued the game until Bahrain scored a goal.

Near the end of the regular 90 minutes, referees usually indicate how much time they are adding to the game to make up for interruptions during the game.

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

Although controversial, the rules of the game state that the additional time is only a minimum and referees are authorized to increase the amount if necessary.

“We are very disappointed with the refereeing performance,” said PSSI managing director Arya Sinulingga.

“It seemed like they extended added time just to allow Bahrain to equalize.”

After the game, the PSSI said it had lodged an official complaint with both Fifa and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).

Death threats

The following days saw a deluge 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 had deliberately favored another Gulf state by allowing the match to continue. After the game, the Indonesian coach described Al Kaf as “biased” towards Bahrain.

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

“[The BFA] “Expresses great surprise at the numerous death threats the team members have received on their social media accounts – a move that reflects the Indonesian public’s disregard for human life,” said a statement posted on Instagram.

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

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

Crowd issues 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 a crush sparked by an invasion of fan seats in the city of Malang killed 125 people.

Bahrain, ranked 76th in the world, faces China in its next World Cup qualifier next month.

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