By Andrew Warshaw
September 19 – Five Russian cities are nervously waiting to see whether they will miss the cut in the race to be selected to host the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
Of the 13 in the frame, two will be eliminated when the final list is announced by FIFA on September 29.
Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko last week named Saransk, Volgograd, Yaroslavl, Kaliningrad and Rostov-on-Don as having “several problems” that may rule them out.
Of those five, only Saransk (stadium pictured top) took part in a construction seminar on Monday (September 17) that could help the chances of the city of 300,000 an hour’s flight from Moscow.
Significantly, it is also the only one of the five where building work has already begun.
“It was important to hold this seminar now, without awaiting the final list of host cities so that the builders and project managers can take into consideration all the recommendations and demands linked with the tournament,” said Russia 2018 chief Alexey Sorokin.
Moscow is guaranteed the final at the iconic Luzhniki Stadium, with proposed new venues for Dynamo and Spartak hoping to share the capital’s World Cup fixtures.
St Petersburg is likely to be given a semi-final at Zenit’s new stadium, which should be completed by 2014.
The other dead certs are Sochi, the 2014 Winter Olympic and Paralympic host, and Kazan, which will have infrastructure in place by next year when it hosts the World Student Games.
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