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.”
