Bahrain goalkeeper celebrating goal against Indonesia misidentified as 'match referee'

Misinformation has continued to swirl around a controversial World Cup qualifying match between Bahrain and Indonesia that ended in a draw. A video viewed over one million times has been shared repeatedly with a false claim that it shows the match referee celebrating Bahrain's equaliser in the ninth minute of injury time. But an analysis of the clip found the misidentified man was in fact a goalkeeper for Bahrain.

"The moment referee Ahmed joined in the celebration of the equalising goal during Bahrain vs Indonesia," read the Indonesian-language caption to a TikTok video uploaded on October 12, 2024.

The blurry clip shows a red arrow pointing to a man wearing a black jersey who joins Bahraini players in their celebrations.

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Screenshot of the false post, taken on October 16, 2024.

The post surfaced after an October 10 World Cup qualifying match in Bahrain ended in a 2-2 draw, with Bahrain equalising in the ninth minute of injury time.

Indonesian officials and supporters afterwards complained the injury time had gone on for too long, with many expressing outrage at referee Ahmed Al-Kaf.

The video has also racked up more than 1.5 million views after being shared alongside similar claims on FacebookX and TikTok.

Comments to the posts indicated many social media users believed the man shown celebrating in the video was the match referee.

"That's clearly not right; it proves there's match-fixing involved... the referee has been bribed or there's unfairness in officiating... That's very unusual... it should be reported to FIFA," said one user.

"There is no doubt that seeing the referee's actions, he also celebrated the second goal with a celebration, why is he so happy???" another commented.

Bahrain goalkeeper

A keyword search on YouTube led to a video first uploaded by the official local media account RCTI, which holds the broadcasting rights for the match in Indonesia.

An analysis of the video -- titled "HIGHLIGHT BAHRAIN 2 vs 2 INDONESIA AFC ASIAN QUALIFIERS ROAD TO 26 #BHRvIDN #afcasianqualifier" -- found the man was wearing the jersey of the Bahrain national team.

At the video's 15:56 mark, his jersey number could be seen as "21", which belongs to Bahraini subtitle goalkeeper Sayed Mohammed Jaffer (archived link).

Below is a screenshot comparison of the video shared in the false posts (left) and the clearer clip from RCTI (right) with the jersey number highlighted: 

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Screenshot comparison of the video shared in the false posts (left) and the clearer clip from RCTI (right) with the jersey number highlighted

Moreover, the referee Ahmed Al-Kaf could be seen wearing a black long-sleeve jersey during the match in a video uploaded on the YouTube account of AFC Asian Cup (archived link).

Below is a comparison of Jaffer (left) and Al-Kaf (right) highlighted by AFP:

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Comparison of Jaffer (left) and Al-Kaf (right) in the Bahrain vs Indonesia game

A few seconds after Bahrain's equaliser and the ensuing celebration, he could be seen standing in the middle of the pitch and pointing midfield as shown in the screenshot below:

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Screenshot of referee's position and jersey at the time of Bahrain's second goal.

The controversial match has spurred misinformation debunked by AFP here and here.

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