Terre’Blanche killing won’t impact World Cup, says Blatter

FIFA president Sepp Blatter said Friday he had been assured that the assassination of South African far-right leader Eugene Terre’Blanche would not have an impact on the World Cup, starting in the country on June 11.

Blatter told French broadcaster TV5-Europe that there would not be “inter-racial conflicts” as “we have received indirect assurances from the government, through the South African ambassador in Switzerland.”

He added: “This affair is being dealt with internally in the country - this group (Terre’Blanche’s white supremacist AWB movement) does not want revenge during the World Cup.

“One can never say that security will be 100 percent - but security is not the business of a sporting organisation but a matter for the state.” South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma on Sunday called for calm over the killing Saturday of Terre’Blanche, as police arrested two of his farm workers.

The 69-year-old Afrikaans Resistance Movement (AWB) leader was found with facial and head injuries and a machete on his body after an alleged dispute over pay with the workers.

Zuma urged South Africans to remain calm as opposition parties and groups warned that the far-right leader’s killing had created a potentially explosive situation.

PARIS, Monday AFP