World Cup 2010: White Supremacist Group Warns Teams To Stay Away

People had different concerns about hosting the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

But overall everything seemed to be handled pretty well, and it looked as though the tournament should run smoothly.

This past week, however, many things have changed.

While it cannot be said that racial tensions weren't existent in South Africa up to this week, things really heated up following the death of white supremacist Eugene Terre'Blanche last Saturday.

Following his death, Terre'Blanche's extremist party, Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging, announced that they would avenge his killing, which occurred after black workers on his farm hacked him to death, following a wage dispute, according to the Ottawa Citizen. Included in their vow to avenge his death, they warned teams coming for the World Cup to skip the tournament, out of risk for their own safety.

South African President Jacob Zuma has appealed for calm following the death and the subsequent remarks, asking political leaders and parties to not use the death to score political points.

In a public television appearance, Zuma pointed to the fact that the nation must, "avoid statements which would reverse nation-building and racial cohesion."

"We make a call to all South Africans to refrain from making speculative pronouncements, as the perpetrators have handed themselves to the law enforcement authorities," Zuma said. "Instead, [political parties] must work harder to unite our people.

More friction has arised also as the result of Julius Melema, leader of the Youth League, who has told President Zuma that he and his party will not refrain from singing protest songs and fighting for land seizures of white farmers, similar to what took place in Zimbabwe. The statement came following Zuma requesting that the Youth League tone down their protest songs in reaction to the killing, according to the Washington Post.

Now, I will be the first to state that I have very little knowledge on South African history or on this topic itself politically, and have simple reiterated the news of the mainstream media. While it is a very important issue, I will leave that to world reporters and people who know more on that topic who can report it more factually correct than myself.

What I am interested in, is the sports angle of this.

While the statement warning visiting World Cup teams to stay home will cause concern among the players, it is hard to believe that it will be taken enough to actually keep them from participating.

In a very controversial article, England's Daily Star warned English soccer fans that they could be facing a "Bloodbath" when travelling to the tournament, and quoted an unnamed FIFA source saying that emergency plans are being drawn up, and that it would be a "total nightmare" if civil war broke out.

FIFA representatives have since dismissed the story as "garbage," and the article has received large amounts of negative feedback, stemming from its inflammatory headline, "Machete Threat to England Fans."

While reading the article, it does appear to be very sensational and have little truth to it, the issue of emergency plans is not new to the 2010 tournament. As early as last year, many papers reported that a "backup emergency tournament" was scheduled for Germany should anything prevent the tournament from going through in South Africa.

South Africa had already, prior to the killing of Terre'Blanche, stated that they would increase the police force by a whopping 41,000, and have the military in a "State of Alert" mode. In addition, the Interpol have given the security plans a nod of approval, deeming them satisfactory for the games.

Some fear that this may not be enough, however, as in addition to the violent racial tensions brewing, there have also been violent protests in recent months over poor public services in poor neighborhoods, as well as a new bus network specifically for the tournament, which has enraged the collective mini-bus drivers who had a monopoly for decades to the point of violent protest, reports the Vancouver Sun.

Regardless of these events, South Africa is gearing itself up for the biggest event its ever hosted. Soccer stands across the host cities are boasting gear from all nations, giant soccer balls are being inflated in these cities, and national flags are being displayed from car windows of both black and white communities, which realizes the tournament's goal of uniting all communities in the nation.

The local World Cup organizing committee has also rejected the idea of violence against either fans or players.

"It's not going to happen," said a representative from one local committee.

Now, as I have said, I do not have the education or knowledge to comment on the political side of this, I simply wanted to report the story in a way that soccer fans know what's going on, and provide the idea that this is an issue that should be followed.