FIFA president Sepp Blatter said Monday the South African stadium stampede that left a policeman seriously injured is like a wake-up call to warn World Cup organizers.
Blatter said FIFA regretted Sunday's incident at the World Cup warmup between Nigeria and North Korea, which left 16 people injured outside Makhulong Stadium in the township of Tembisa near Johannesburg.
``I am sure, and you are sure, that this is like an alarm clock and this will not happen at any match at the World Cup,'' Blatter said after a two-day meeting of FIFA's executive committee.
``The security is always a matter for the state where the sport event is played. The FIFA organization, with all its ramifications, we have no police force. We cannot even take out a spectator from a stadium. We cannot do that. It is not possible.''
About 10,000 tickets were given away free for the match, where police saw a crowd twice force open the gates to the stadium.
``In terms of organization, please be sure that the level of organization we have at the World Cup is definitely higher than the one we have seen there,'' said FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke, who was sitting alongside Blatter at the media briefing. ``We have to make sure that the police working around the World Cup stadiums will do better than what we have seen yesterday.''
Taiwo Ogunjobi, the Nigerian federation's technical committee chairman, told website kickoff.com they had no alternatives other than Makhulong stadium, an outdated venue which has no turnstiles for fans.
``We had no choice,'' Ogunjobi said. ``That was the only venue available to us. FIFA had taken control of all the stadia we could have used, and we had to settle for this one because we needed to play this match.''
But Valcke denied FIFA had control of all other possible venues.
FIFA said Sunday in a statement that the match had ``no relation whatsoever with the operational organization of the 2010 FIFA World Cup,'' and Nigeria media officer Idah Peterside said the match ``was organized by the two FAs.''
Blatter also said it was a ``good idea'' that Brazil recently played a match in Zimbabwe despite players like Kaka and Robinho shaking hands with President Robert Mugabe, who has been accused of running a campaign of political violence in his country.
``We have seen the enthusiasm of the people and how football connected people and that's all,'' Blatter said of the visit by the five-time World Cup winners. ``I think it was a good idea to go there.''
In other football issues:
- FIFA said its executive committee had decided that New Zealand club Wellington Phoenix would be allowed to continue playing in the Australian league until 2016. FIFA granted a license extension for Wellington, which was required because New Zealand is part of the Oceania confederation and Australia is a member of the Asian Football Confederation.
- The draw to decide the qualifying groups for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil will be made in July next year instead of December. Valcke said the new date would allow matches to be played in earlier slots in the international match calendar.
- Haiti will replace Cuba as CONCACAF's representative in the six-team boys' tournament at the 2010 Youth Olympic Games. The Aug. 14-26 event also includes host nation Singapore, Zimbabwe, Bolivia, Vanuatu and Montenegro.
- The committee recommended that the football federation of Brunei Darussalam be suspended and not expelled from FIFA. Political interference in football in Brunei had led to fears that it would be only the second national federation to be expelled from FIFA, after South Africa in 1976 during the apartheid era.
- Blatter also said FIFA's ethics committee would not take any further action against the English Football Association and former chairman Lord Triesman, who made accusations of match-fixing against Spain and Russia.
