JOHANNESBURG, May 22, 2010 (AFP) - No terror threats against the World Cup have been uncovered by any of the intelligence agencies working with FIFA, despite claims of a plot by Al-Qaeda in Iraq, the football governing body said.
“For the time being, we haven't received (information about) any threat against the World Cup from any of the intelligence agencies we are working with,” FIFA's secretary general Jerome Valcke said.
“We are working very well with Interpol and with the police departments of each of the 32 participating countries” to ensure the security of the event,” he told the Foreign Correspondents Association in Johannesburg.
“I hope the world will be calm” during the World Cup, which kicks off on June 11, he added.
An Iraqi security spokesman said on Monday that a 30-year-old Saudi man arrested two weeks ago had “participated in the planning of a terrorist act in South Africa during the World Cup”.
South African police said Monday they were making enquiries into the report, but few details have since emerged. |
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