Photos of the Fifa boss sharing laughs and high fives during a match with Indonesian football leaders after the deaths of 133 fans in early October sparked a barrage of criticism in Indonesia on Wednesday.
Gianni Infantino traveled to the Southeast Asian country two weeks after the October 1 stadium disaster caused by tear gas being fired at the end of a match in Malang, eastern Spain. island of Java.
He met Indonesian President Joko Widodo in the capital Jakarta on Tuesday and pledged that Fifa would help improve match security and reform Indonesian football.
But on Wednesday morning, the Indonesian Football Federation (PSSI) posted images on social media showing the FIFA boss playing a game the day before with Indonesian FA president Mochamad Iriawan, who is resisting calls for his resignation.
"
Instead of playing football together, they would have been better off going to the victims of the Kanjuruhan (stadium) tragedy together
," Indonesian actor Vino G. Bastian tweeted to his 1.9 million followers, who were more than 20,000 to approve it with a "
like
".
133 people died.
And your president comes here to have fun playing football and laughing?
“
133 people died.
And your president comes here to have fun playing football and laughing?
Why don't you have fun playing at Kanjuruhan Stadium?
Shame on @FIFAcom
,” criticized PanditFootball, a hugely popular account among Indonesian football fans with 600,000 followers.
4000 comments on a tweet
PSSI's original tweet, received more than 4,000 mostly negative comments, and the controversy ranked among the top topics discussed on the social network in Indonesia on Wednesday.
Local football expert Pangeran Siahaan said those responsible had been "
extremely clumsy
".
"
I can't believe that the federation, already in the hot seat, and its president, thought it was a good idea to be photographed laughing and kicking the ball with the president of Fifa
,” he told AFP.
A team investigating the disaster called the week behind the president of the Indonesian football federation, a former police chief in Jakarta, to resign along with his entire executive committee.
Indonesian football expert Akmal Marhali, one of the investigators, believed officials would travel to the disaster-stricken town of Malang.
"
I don't know why they decided to have fun with this football match while the graveyards are still fresh
."
The federation did not respond to questions about Tuesday's match.
Gianno Infantino described the disaster, in which more than 40 children lost their lives, as "
one of the darkest days for football
".