FIFA to investigate Bahrain's 10-0 World Cup win

Bahrain's Ali Mohamed, right, fights for the ball with Indonesia's Dwicahyo Gunawan, left, on Wednesday, February 29, during an Asian qualifying soccer match for the 2014 World Cup. File photo

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 Wednesday, but the Qataris scored an 83-minute equalizer to get a 2-2 draw in Iran 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.”