BERLIN: New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy on Sunday promised the 2026 World Cup will be an “incredibly safe tournament” hours after an assassination attempt on former US President Donald Trump and amid violence at Copa America matches.

MetLife Stadium, in Murphy’s state of New Jersey will play host to eight games, including the final, of the 2026 World Cup which is to be held in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Trump was hit in the ear in an assassination attempt by a gunman at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on Saturday, while a bystander was killed.

At Wednesday’s Copa America — hosted in the United States — semi-final between Colombia and Uruguay in Charlotte, violence broke out in the stands between fans at full time.

It took more than 10 minutes for police to arrive and restore order while players, including Liverpool striker Darwin Nunez, were seen going into the crowd to protect family members.

Speaking in Berlin ahead of the Euro 2024 final between Spain and England on Sunday, Murphy told reporters he was confident the 2026 World Cup would be peaceful and secure.

Speaking of the assassination attempt, Murphy said “that kind of violence has no place in American public discourse”, while saying that New Jersey and neighbouring New York “have among the strongest gun safety laws anywhere in America”.

Murphy added: “I can say with great confidence this will be an incredibly safe tournament.”

The Governor also spoke out about the Copa America violence saying the 2026 World Cup organisers will have much longer to organise a safe tournament.

Murphy, as part of the New York-New Jersey host city bid, said he could only speak about the security situation at MetLife. MetLife Stadium is located in New Jersey, just outside New York City, and is home to the New York Giants and Jets NFL teams.

“I wasn’t there, but that’s not how we construct things at MetLife. That is something that has never happened in our stadium and, God willing, will never happen. It’s just not how we approach segregating [fans] and security.”

Published in Dawn, July 15th, 2024