Nigeria's football federation said it had

no choice of venue for its World Cup warmup match against North Korea, after 15 people were injured in a stampede.

One policeman was seriously hurt on Sunday during two separate fan rushes at the Makhulong Stadium outside Johannesburg.

Taiwo Ogunjobi, the Nigerian federation's technical committee chairman, told website kickoff.com they had no alternatives.

"We had no choice," Ogunjobi said.

"That was the only venue available to us. FIFA had taken control of all the stadia we could have used, and we had to settle for this one because we needed to play this match."

The South African Police Service is investigating the incident.

Tickets for the match were given out for free outside the stadium, and FIFA said it had nothing to do with the ticketing.

On Sunday, FIFA said in a statement that the match had "no relation whatsoever with the operational organisation of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, for which we remain fully confident."

Nigeria media officer Idah Peterside said the match "was organised by the two FAs," but police spokesman Colonel Hangwani Mulaudzi said on Sunday that Nigeria, as the host team, was responsible

for security.

The World Cup, the first to be held in Africa, starts on Friday.

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