Australia’s Socceroos players have been concerned about their security for their World Cup finals play-off against Uruguay, taking place on the 12th of November in Montevideo.

Guus Hiddink’s Socceroos have stated that they wouldn’t hesitate in walking off the pitch, if there is any likelihood of a re-run of their last encounter against Uruguay, when crowd trouble marred their previous match, which just happens to be a carbon copy of the play-off’s situation which brought the two teams together four years ago.

Australian players where then forced to hire armed security guards to protect them, after they were jostled and spat at on their last trip to face the South American’s in a World Cup play-off, which resulted in a 3-0 defeat for the Socceroos.

Football Federation Australia (FFA) chief executive John O'Neill said the Australian players would be better prepared this time but would not hesitate to walk off if there was any crowd trouble.

"I've seen it before, that a team can always come off the field," O'Neill said.

"I was at the Rugby World Cup final in 1999 when the French resorted to eye gouging and [Australian captain] John Eales told the referee that if this continues I'm taking my team off the field.

"If you've got a high quality referee, good line judges and the match is conducted according to the rules of FIFA. you shouldn't get down to that…Equally, we will not be shrinking violets."

O'Neill called on FIFA to ensure there will be no repeat of the crowd problems.

"There was an orchestrated campaign [last time] by some pretty unsavoury parts of the Montevideo football establishment that went into a systematic objective of undermining the Socceroos. We allowed their tactics to get to us," he said.

"It happens in sport where in some cultures the opposition team is regarded as fair game," he said. "It's not on, this is a FIFA match.

"They have to ensure that the spirit of fair play, and that's the banner under which FIFA runs itself, is absolutely adhered to.

"We need to make sure that FIFA, under whose auspices this game is being run, have taken all the measures to ensure there is no repetition of what happened four years ago."

Defeat last time meant the Australians missed out on a place in the 2002 World Cup finals despite a 1-0 home leg win, with the aggregate score finishing 3-1 to Uruguay.

The second-leg of their World Cup play-off will be held in Sydney, Australia, four days later on the 16th of November.

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