Bahrain won’t play football in Indonesia on safety grounds

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 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 fixture in Jakarta to be moved outside Indonesia because it “refuses to expose the lives of the team members to any potential danger”.

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

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