By David Gold
September 12 – Two cities will be dropped from the list of 13 in contention to host FIFA 2018 World Cup matches, Vitaly Mutko, the Russian Sports Minister has confirmed.
The decision on which host cities are to be selected to host games during Russia 2018 will be made on September 29 by FIFA’s Executive Committee after its meeting in Moscow.
As well as being Russian Sports Minister, Mutko (pictured top) is also a member of the FIFA Executive Committee and the chairman of Russia 2018.
A delegation from FIFA and Russia 2018 took a tour of the prospective host cities to analyse their respective merits earlier this year.
“We have completed the formal review of all the candidate cities,” Mutko said according the Sport’s Ministry press office.
“As of today we still have 15 stadiums located in 13 cities but we plan to use only 12 venues in 11 cities, therefore our task is to pick the two cities that must be cut.”
Moscow will definitely stage games, with its Luzhniki Stadium (pictured below) set to host the final and a semi-final of the World Cup.
St Petersburg is not at threat either, despite slow progress on the construction of a new stadium in the city.
Sochi, which hosts the Winter Olympics and Paralympics in 2014, and Kazan, staging next year’s Summer Universiade, will also receive matches, as will Yekaterinburg, a city at the geographical border between Europe and Asia, according to Mutko.
“We have divided all 13 cities into three categories,” he said.
“Moscow, St Petersburg, Kazan, Sochi and Yekaterinburg are in a group that is best suited to host the matches.
“We have little doubt that two cities, Krasnodar and Samara, will also be fully prepared.
“Then we have the last group, consisting of five cities – Saransk, Volgograd, Yaroslavl, Kaliningrad and Rostov – that have problems.
“Most likely, two of those five cities will be cut from the final list.”
insideworldfootball understands that Nizhny Novgorod (stadium pictured below) is also likely to be ready to host games during the World Cup.
Kaliningrad could be at particular risk after recent reports emerged suggesting that Russia may scrap its plans for a high-speed rail network.
As Kaliningrad is situated between Lithuania and Poland, far away from any of the other host cities, it could be considered a risk, particularly given that Yekaterinburg is also distant from most cities set to host matches.
However, the city has enlisted the help of German legend Franz Beckenbauer, who was President of Germany 2006, to help promote their cause.
Of the remaining four, Volgograd could be the most at risk, as in spite of having what FIFA described as a “generally acceptable” transport network in their evaluation during the World Cup bidding process, the stadiums in Yaroslavl, Saransk and Rostov are located nearer to their respective city centres.
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