AXA, the main insurers of next year's World Cup finals, have told soccer's ruling body FIFA they want to renegotiate the policy as a direct result of the attacks on the U.S., FIFA President Sepp Blatter said today.
"We have been given one month to renegotiate the deal that currently stands at 1.4 billion Swiss francs ($852.1 million)," Blatter said.
AXA have insured the World Cup for various risks including "terrorism" but told FIFA that they were no longer prepared to carry the risk following the attacks on the U.S.
AXA told FIFA their contract to insure the World Cup would become invalid on November 11th unless the deal was renegotiated.
Blatter said: "I would have expected a company such as AXA to have given us some warning about this but there was absolutely none.
"It really boils down to a question of money and they clearly want a bigger premium.
"The deal will have to be renegotiated because the World Cup cannot go ahead without insurance which covers, for example, bank guarantees, marketing rights and also acts of terrorism," Blatter said.
"There is no question that this will stop the World Cup which will definitely go ahead, and I have always said that a World Cup in the Far East would be extremely expensive, now it will be even more so."