The Asian Football Confederation has confirmed the switch of the upcoming 2022 Fifa World Cup qualifying game between Indonesia and Vietnam from Jakarta to Bali amid fears over crowd trouble. Sport Business reports.
The game will take place at the 23,000-capacity Kapten I Wayan Dipta Stadium in Bali instead of Jakarta’s 77,000-capacity Gelora Bung Karno Stadium, on October 15 at 7.30pm local time.
Fox Sports Asia reports that the qualifier between Indonesia and Malaysia played at the Jakarta stadium on September 5th was halted for a period, after home fans began throwing flares and water bottles at the away section. The Football Association of Malaysia made an official complaint about the incident to the AFC and Fifa. Fox said the Indonesian football federation (PSSI) is concerned about potential damage to its ambitions to host the 2021 Fifa Under-20 World Cup.
Vietnamese state news service Nhân Dân said the venue switch had also been motivated by violent protests in Jakarta over the past two weeks in which students opposed to changes to the country’s criminal laws have clashed with police.