Ref Could Cancel Thai Advantage

Thailand play Palestine in their World Cup Qualifier Second Leg knowing that their 1-0 lead is no way near enough. The shot shy Thais have been notorious for their inability to turn their silky build up play in to goals and new coach Winifred Schaeffer found out the hard way in the 1st leg.

As if that ain't enough the Thais may face a further handicap. I think I heard somewhere the ref for this game is from Bahrain. Now I don't know what the stats tell on this but how many non Arab teams get a result in that part of the world when the game is being reffed by an Arab?

I have heard on a couple of occasions of teams waiting in the tunnel and the match officials coming along and hugging their Arab brethren while just offering a cursory handshake to the visitors. Maybe something or nothing but it hardly inspires confidence in he impartiality of the officials when they're high fiving the home team.