Football: Indonesian authorities deny foul play

JAKARTA: Indonesian football authorities denied any foul play in the national team’s 10-0 thrashing by Bahrain after world governing body Fifa announced an inquiry and fans expressed outrage. Bahrain needed to win Wednesday’s match in Manama by nine goals to have any hope of making the final round of Asian-zone qualifiers for the 2014 World Cup, while Indonesia had already been eliminated from the tournament. Indonesia’s football association has long been mired in graft scandals, but the head of its disciplinary committee, Bernhard Limbong, said there was ‘no way’ corruption was involved in the remarkable score-line.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 3^rd, 2012.