FIFA Confederations Cup: Protesters targeted Nigeria-Uruguay match

The two teams were advised to arrive very early for the match.

Brazilians who have been engaged in street demonstrations against hiked transport fares and high spending on the ongoing 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup targeted stopping Thursday night’s match between Nigeria and Uruguay.

The PANA correspondent covering the competition said that it took the prompt thinking on the part of the Brazilian security forces to get the match underway.

The protesters had also criticised the staging of next year’s FIFA World Cup.

Ahead of the match, which Nigeria lost 1-2 at the Arena Fonte Nova in Salvador, the streets leading to the stadium had been barricaded by 1,500 military policemen, while some detachments of the civil policemen were also sent to the stadium.

The demonstrators had reportedly planned to prevent the game from holding as part of the protests against what they also saw as high level corruption in government.

Nigerian team officials revealed that they were advised to get to the stadium earlier than the normal time, as the streets were to be closed. Apparently, the same advice was given to the Uruguayans.

The strategy worked well for the Brazilian security agencies, as they succeeded in getting the teams into the stadium earlier than the protesters had anticipated, and then shut down the streets to the stadium to ward off the protesters.

(PANA/NAN)