You know how it goes, the qualifying stages have not gone well and you wind up with one game left and having to win by nine or more to qualify for the big prize, and then you go and win 10-0. No, not familiar with this story? Well neither are Fifa.
Former England manager Peter Taylor’s side needed to win and by a margin or nine or more to stand any chance of qualifying for the World Cup, but then went on and beat their opponents, an Indonesian side that turned out to be decidedly under strength, not just by nine goals but by a margin of 10-0.
“Fifa will conduct a routine examination of this game and its result,” a spokesman has told the BBC of the irregular score line.
“[This is due to] the unusual outcome in relation to the result expectation and head-to-head history – and in the interests of maintaining unequivocal confidence in our game.”
In other words, it looks dodgy so they’re taking a look.
Regardless of the outcome of their investigation, Bahrain will not be at the World Cup finals in Brazil in two years time as, despite their “impressive’ win, group rivals Qatar drew with Iran making their nine-surmounting efforts irrelevant.
Photo: Getty.
