Curacao international Juninho Bacuna was a victim of social media abuse following the Birmingham City midfielder’s red card in his side’s 2-1 defeat at the hands of Indonesia on Tuesday night. Juninho, who had previously represented Huddersfield Town, was sent off following a bad tackle on Indonesia’s Marselino Ferdinan, and his reaction to his dismissal saw him kicking the ball towards the Indonesia supporters, which invited the wrath of said supporters.
Curacao went up against Indonesia on Tuesday in the second match between the pair within this month’s international break. The first match, played on Saturday at the Gelora Bandung Lautan Api, saw Indonesia won 3-2 in a thrilling encounter, before Tuesday’s second match at the Pakansari Stadium sees Curacao, who had former Southampton man Cuco Martina and former Aston Villa man Leandro Bacuna in their lineup, once again being unable to get the better of the Timnas Garuda, with the Caribbean side losing 2-1 thanks to an early goal from Dimas Drajad and a late goal from Dendy Sulistyawan.
Prior to Dendy’s 87th minute winner, things got heated in the 80th minute after Juninho had landed an awful tackle on Marselino. The foul immediately prompted emotions to flare up as players from both teams almost exchanged blows on the pitch, with Laotian referee Xaypaseuth Pongsanit issuing Juninho a second yellow card that effectively sent him off the game.
Understandably frustrated by the decision, Juninho kicked the ball towards the stands containing a group of Indonesian fans, a gesture that angered them. The fans began throwing water bottles at Juninho, which in turn further infuriated the midfielder. Juninho proceeded to kick a nearby bottle towards the fans, before directing his anger and frustration towards an advertising board. With emotions at an all-time high, the Indonesia players immediately went towards the angry fans and calmed them down.
However, the Indonesia fans refused to bury the hatchet just yet and left a plethora of abusive and hateful comments in Juninho’s Instagram posts, which got so bad that the player had to close the comment section of his latest post. A number of fan accounts on Instagram dedicated to the Indonesia national team also posted pictures of Juninho with generally abusive captions, while Domy Stupa, a notable cover singer on YouTube who’s also a huge fan of the Indonesia national team, took things to the next level and reported Juninho’s Instagram account for hate speech in hopes of having it shut down, posting said action onto his own Instagram story.
Even fellow Indonesia fans who are more level-headed in the matter weren’t spared from the abusive comments, with a number of fans calling out for calm and order being equally attacked in the same venomous vitriol by an already enraged fanbase.
Juninho wasn’t the only victim of “Indonesian internet mob justice” following his actions towards the Timnas Garuda. Following his tackle that left Evan Dimas injured in the 2019 SEA Games final, Vietnam defender Doan Van Hau was subjected to a number of online abuse by angry Indonesian fans, while a similar fate befell young Thailand defender Jonathan Khemdee following his provocations towards the Indonesian players in the 2021 SEA Games semifinal. The online abuse towards Khemdee had gotten so bad that his Instagram account was wiped out from the face of the Earth, with the player either shutting down his account or it was forcefully shut down by Instagram thanks to the numerous reports made to them by Indonesian fans.
Other players who suffered the wrath of Indonesian fans online include Tochigi SC’s Kenta Fukumori (for fouling Pratama Arhan during Tochigi’s match with Tokyo Verdy in the 2022 J.League 2 back in July), Nepal international Pujan Uparkoti (for punching Saddil Ramdani in Nepal’s 7-0 loss against Indonesia in June’s AFC Asian Cup qualifiers), Singapore international Nur Adam Abdullah (for fouling Witan Sulaeman in the 2020 AFF Championship), and former MFK Zemplin Michalovce player Takuto Oshima (for squaring up against Egy Maulana Vikri in a 2021/22 Slovak Superliga match), to name a few.
While emotions may run high during a football match that could lead to undesirable events, it is never justified for someone to retaliate by abusing others online. Football is all about respect and sportsmanship and while rivalries can get quite exciting and emotional, one must always remember that said rivalry only last for the match’s 90 minutes. Sure, the actions of some players might rub us the wrong way, but it’s never a good thing to fight fire with fire. Just because some players did some mistakes on the pitch, it doesn’t mean that you’re allowed to harass them online to the point of either reporting their social media accounts or forcing them to shut down said accounts. How we react to such situations are signs of our maturity and by reacting appropriately to such situations, we will earn the respect of others.