A branch of al-Qaida has threatened to target England's match against the United States at this summer's World Cup in South Africa.
Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, a terror group based in Algeria, said in a statement that it planned to use an undetectable explosive to cause hundreds of deaths when the teams meet on 12 June in Rustenburg. It said that France, Germany and Italy were also on its list of targets.
"All those countries are part of the Zionist-Crusader campaign against Islam," it said in a statement published in a recent issue of the jihadist online magazine 'Mushtaqun Lel Jannah'.
"How amazing could the match between the United States and England be if, during a live broadcast with a stadium packed with spectators, the sound of an explosion rumbles through the stands, the whole stadium is turned upside down and the numbers of dead bodies are in their dozens and hundreds, God willing."
The Football Association did not comment. Fifa said nothing would prevent the World Cup from being held in South Africa. "It does not mean that because we receive a threat the World Cup should not be allowed to be contested in South Africa or any other country," its secretary general, Jérôme Valcke, said.
"We have freedom in the world to celebrate what we want. As the management of the organisation that governs world football, we know there is a threat. We will not stop the organisation of the World Cup because we got the threat."
Valcke added: "We put in place all what we can in terms of security and we are working with this threat at the ministerial level and with security agencies worldwide to ensure that nothing happens in South Africa.
"Not only are we working with the participating countries, but with everyone that can help prevent attacks."