The heated atmosphere between Malaysian and Vietnamese football fans after Sunday’s AFF Suzuki Cup semifinal first leg has not ended even with both teams now in Hanoi to prepare for the return game; in fact, it has spread to the Internet and hackers already began to take part.

Vietnamese supporters took to forums, newswires, and social networks to complain about, criticize and condemn the Malaysian players for repeatedly fouling their beloved footballers, and fans for attacking them in the stands during the first leg at the Shah Alam Stadium in Kuala Lumpur.

Extreme Vietnamese hackers even compromised the website of Malaysia’s football governing body on Monday.

The website of the Football Association of Malaysia, fam.org.my, now displays a message reading it is under maintenance, after it was found hacked yesterday.

The website was defaced apparently by Vietnamese hackers, who left messages in both English and Vietnamese criticizing the “bad play” of Malaysian fans, referring to the bloody attack they launched at Vietnamese supporters after Malaysia was defeated 1-2 at home on Sunday.

Many Vietnamese were assaulted and injured by the home fans following the defeat, with some Malaysian supporters hurling glass bottles at the visiting fans and using their fists during the bloody stampede in the stands.

Blood was seen on the face and T-shirt of a Vietnamese fan in the shameful assault then.

The cyber-attackers also left a long message in Vietnamese, calling “all hackers of Vietnam” to mount a simultaneous attack to “down Malaysia’s Internet in one day.”

The message included a link to a website that hosts the hacking tool for the attack, for which no individuals or hacker groups have claimed responsibility.

Vo Do Thang, director of Internet security training center Athena, said this is a very dangerous action which could lead to a “cyber war” between Vietnamese and Malaysian hackers.

Indeed, the website of the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) was also inaccessible shortly after the hacking of the Football Association of Malaysia.

But a federation representative asserted to Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper on Monday night that the website was not hacked.

“It’s a mere coincidence as the website has been inaccessible at times during the past week as it is undergoing a system upgrade,” the VFF official said.

As of Tuesday afternoon, the vff.org.vn website only displays a message saying the domain has been suspended because “either the domain has been overused, or the reseller ran out of resources.”

Nguyen Xuan Gu, VFF deputy chairman of public relations, said he had not been briefed about the issue.

Many other Vietnamese fans also sent hostile messages to the Facebook pages of the Malaysian players and supporters, while HarimauMalaya, the official Facebook page of Malaysian football fans with 1.2 million followers, posted a photo to apologize to the Vietnamese fans.

Vietnam will play Malaysia in Hanoi on Thursday in their semi second leg. The hosts only need one point to set up the finale with either Thailand or the Philippines, who will challenge each other in Bangkok on Wednesday.

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