Should there be concerns about South Africa's stadiums?
Post categories: World Cup Have Your Say
| 19:18 UK time, Monday, 7 June 2010
A warm-up match at the Makhulong Stadium in Johannesburg has - in the words of the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳'s Piers Edwards - provided "the wrong sort of build-up to the World Cup" after .
The game, between Nigeria and North Korea, was free for people to enter - and many more than the anticipated 10,000 capacity turned up, triggering a crowd surge.
Fifa, the organisers of the World Cup, have stressed that they were not involved in the ticketing arrangements for the match, and Nigeria's football federation .
They insist, however, that there was no possibility of finding another ground as Fifa had "taken control of all the stadiums from the South Africans."
"Sadly this incident occurred but it was surely out of our hands because we and North Korea wanted to have this game,"explained NFF board member Taiwo Ogunjobi.
In a separate incident the game was then stopped for five minutes in the second half when a railing collapsed inside the stadium.
Whoever is to blame, the incidents have raised concerns about the safety of fans in the country - and is likely to heighten security even further ahead of the kick-off on Friday.
Are you concerned by what happened at the Makhulong Stadium? Should the match have been played there - or should Fifa have made other stadiums available?
