The suicide bombers who attacked two luxury hotels in Indonesia this month aimed to kill members of the Manchester United football team, according to an internet message allegedly written by the fugitive leader of an al-Qaeda faction.

The message, posted on a blog in the name of Noordin Mohammed Top, self-styled leader of al-Qaeda Organisation Indonesia, has not been authenticated by police investigating the bombings two weeks ago.

If it is genuine, then it represents an alarming new threat to the security of sports teams across the world.

Mr Noordin was immediately named as the chief suspect in the bombings, and is wanted in connection with four attacks going back six years that have killed 240 people.

The statement in his name celebrates the double suicide bombings, which killed six foreigners and one Indonesian at the Ritz Carlton and JW Marriott hotels in Jakarta.

“The [Manchester United] club consists of players who are Crusaders [Christians] and therefore they did not deserve to play in a Muslim country,” the message reads.

If true, the bombers struck hopelessly early — the team was not due to check into the Ritz Carlton until two days after the bombing for a friendly fixture against an Indonesian team. The trip was immediately cancelled after news of the attacks.

Four of those who died were attending a breakfast business meeting in the Marriott, and the author of the message states that foreign businessmen, especially the American Chamber of Commerce and Industry were a specific target, as “intelligence agents” of the United States.

“We know the hotels were used as a meeting point for Western businessmen to create more wicked strategies that in the end would only create misery for our Muslim brothers and sisters,” it said.

“We want to destroy their strength in this country, those who steal the valuables belonging to Muslims in this country.

“It is retribution for all the acts by the United States and its lackeys against Muslims and Muslim holy warriors,” said the statement in Arabic and Indonesian.

The attacks were dedicated to Azahari bin Husin and Sariyah Jabir, two bomb-makers for the jihadi group Jemaah Islamiyah, who were killed by Indonesia anti-terrorist police during raids in 2005 and 2006.

Noordin Mohammed Top, a 40-year-old Malaysian, is one of the most wanted men in South-East Asia and the leader of what appears to be the region’s most active terrorist groups.

He has been blamed for other attacks against Western targets, including the Australian Embassy in Jakarta and an earlier strike against the Marriott hotel.

After a triple suicide bombing on the holiday island of Bali in 2005, the second in three years, he posted a similar internet message claiming responsibility for the attack, which was judged to be authentic.

At that time, his organisation was named as al-Qaeda in the Malay Archipelago, suggesting wider ambitions than just Indonesia. The change may reflect a dwindling of the group’s capacity after seven years of intense anti-terrorist activity.

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