Indonesia’s president expressed concern Monday over the country’s football crisis after the national team was beaten 10-0 by Bahrain, prompting FIFA to launch a probe into possible match-fixing. Bahrain needed to win last week’s match in Manama by nine goals to have any hope of making the last round of the Asian zone qualifiers for the 2014 World Cup, while Indonesia had already been eliminated from the tournament. “I’m deeply concerned over what has happened recently,” Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said in a statement published on the presidential website.
“(The sport authorities) said the team players were not fully prepared, others said the referee was not acting fairly.
“If we have some objections, we need to channel it through FIFA.” Indonesian football authorities on Friday denied allegations of corruption after the world governing body announced an inquiry into the match. Indonesia’s football association (PSSI) has come under fire in recent years over graft allegations, leadership tussles and most recently a breakaway elite league that prompted threats of sanctions by FIFA and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).
