- Associated Press - Thursday, March 1, 2012

ZURICH (AP) - FIFA says it will open a “routine” investigation into Bahrain’s 10-0 victory over Indonesia in a World Cup qualifying match.

Bahrain’s win raised suspicions because it needed to make up a nine-goal deficit on rival Qatar in the group standings to have a chance of advancing to the next round. It also needed Qatar to lose its last match, but the Qataris scored an 83rd-minute equalizer to get a 2-2 draw in Iran on Wednesday and advanced to the next stage of the Asian qualifying tournament ahead of Bahrain.

FIFA says its security department “will conduct a routine examination of this game and its result.”

FIFA says the probe is justified by “the unusual outcome against results expectation and head-to-head history, and in the interests of maintaining unequivocal confidence in our game.”

Copyright © 2024 The Washington Times, LLC.

Please read our comment policy before commenting.

Click to Read More and View Comments

Click to Hide