World Cup chief slams Phil Brown

World Cup 2010 chief Danny Jordaan has hit back at Hull manager Phil Brown for doubting South Africa's ability to host the tournament in the wake of the attack on Togo.

Brown said the attack on the Togo team bus in Angola at the African Nations Cup put a question mark against the World Cup this summer.

But Jordaan said he would contact the Hull manager to put him straight.

Jordaan told BBC World Service: "Phil Brown was saying the World Cup must be removed from South Africa.

"I found that very extraordinary. He is not well informed. I will give him a call and talk to him about it.

"If there is a security breach in any country, it is the responsibility of that country, not ours."

Brown had said on hearing about the attack last Friday that left the bus driver and two members of the backroom staff dead: "I am appalled. This throws a question mark against next summer's World Cup.

"You simply cannot put the safety of players, officials and fans at the slightest risk. That is totally unacceptable."

But Jordaan said to equate Angola with South Africa - there is a distance of 1,000 miles between the two countries - was unfair.

"Fortunately, the majority of the world is not influenced by warped understanding of the African continent," he added.

"If there is a war in Kosovo and a World Cup in Germany, no one asks if the World Cup can go on in Germany, everyone understands the war in Kosovo is a war in Kosovo.

"The world must be balanced and must not apply different standards when it comes to the African continent.

"Our World Cup is secure and we are confident because we have employed a lot of resources to safeguard the event in our country."

Jordaan also backed the decision to continue to play the tournament in Angola.

He said: "There was another call that the African Cup of Nations itself should be called off. But in the 1972 Olympics there was a massacre of Israeli athletes and the Games had to continue because otherwise it's a victory for terrorists.

"And (Arsenal boss) Arsene Wenger said if you don't do the same in Angola it is going to be a victim of terrorism. So there is one coach in the Premier League that I agree with and one that I disagree with."