But because of the unstable political situation, there remained some doubt whether the World Cup qualifier match would go ahead as planned.

In an attempt to dispel those fears, Jerome Valcke, secretary general of FIFA, said Tuesday in Rio de Janeiro, that world soccer’s governing body has no intention of postponing or moving the game. Valcke said the situation in Honduras has not caused safety concerns that would affect the qualifying game. If the situation worsens, however, FIFA could change its position, Valcke said.

There had been talk earlier of moving the match to neighboring Guatemala, or even to the U.S., but both options were met with consternation in Honduras.

“That match belongs to us and we won’t allow anyone to trample over us and take the game elsewhere,” Alfredo Hawit, secretary of the Honduran soccer federation, told La Prensa. “We played against Costa Rica and Trinidad and Tobago in the same climate of political crisis and nothing happened. We are going to defend tooth and nail to play this match in our country.”

Since then, officials from FIFA and CONCACAF, soccer’s regional confederation, have said a switch in venues is unlikely.

The U.S.-Honduras match is supposed to take place in San Pedro Sula. Most of the political turmoil is taking place in the capital, Tegucigalpa, more than 100 miles away, and soccer officials believe San Pedro Sula is relatively tranquil. In fact, on Tuesday they announced that a CONCACAF Champions Cup match between Marathon of Honduras and Toluca of Mexico would be played Thursday night in San Pedro Sula.

The Mexican club said on its website that “despite the complicated situation that is ongoing in Honduras . . . Toluca will have no problem whatsoever competing” in San Pedro Sula.

That stance was reiterated by Toluca’s president, Fernando Corona, who said: “We will definitely travel to Honduras on Wednesday. We will play Thursday against Marathon and will return to Mexico on Friday.”

Corona said that he had been assured by CONCACAF and Honduran officials “that during our stay in that country, Deportivo Toluca would have all the security necessary.”

Meanwhile, U.S. Soccer officials said Tuesday they would continue to monitor the situation. If Thursday’s match is incident-free and the situation in the country as a whole does not deteriorate further in the coming days, the U.S.-Honduras game likely will go ahead as scheduled.

The U.S. leads the six-nation qualifying group with 16 points, followed by Mexico with 15, Honduras with 13 and Costa Rica with 12. El Salvador and Trinidad and Tobago follow. The top three teams qualify directly for South Africa, with the fourth-place finisher going into a playoff with a South American team.