By Paul Nicholson and Andrew Warshaw
July 16 – Comments made by FIFA President Sepp Blatter at the World Cup closing press conference in Brazil have caused confusion in Russia both with the 2018 World Cup organisers and amongst the media.
Blatter said that FIFA was holding meetings in September in Russia to discuss the number of stadiums that will be used for the 2018 World Cup and whether there should be a reduction from the 12 currently being planned to 10.
The comments were made two days after Russian Sports Minister Valery Mutko (pictured), who had previously said that Russia was not building fast enough, outlined in greater detail the 12 stadia in 11 cities that would host the World Cup.
The purpose of Blatter’s remarks are unclear but may have been in response to criticism that FIFA makes too many inflexible demands on host countries.
But for the Russians they came as a surprise, and most likely an unwanted one.
Alexei Sorokin, the chief executive officer of the Russian Organising Committee told reporters: “This is the first I have heard about it, we know nothing about this.” Mutko was in Rio for Sunday’s World Cup final and is understood to have held talks with Blatter.
Russia has allocated $20 billion to the staging of the World Cup, $9 billion more than the $11 billion spent by Brazil that sparked social unrest and protest. But unlike Brazil the Russians are spending a lot more of that money on its own football infrastructure with cities being provided with youth training facilities across the country.
But it seems Blatter is keen to ensure that a more cost-conscious football legacy is left behind once the FIFA World Cup show leaves. “It’s a footballing country but we will have meetings there in September to see if 12 is the right number and even if they could be reduced to 10.”
“It’s obvious the World Cup has taken such a dimension that the organisation is a hard work for the organising country and also for the FIFA,” he said.
“FIFA is looking at 2018 now and we are in discussions on what is the ideal number for the organisation and to keep it in such a manner that it’s feasible, reasonable and controllable.
“We are not going to be in a situation as is the case of one, two or even three stadiums in South Africa where it is a problem of what you do with these stadiums.”
Russia has already acted internally after the state Audit Chamber found that the design work for its 2018 stadia has been over-priced by as much as 3 billion rubles ($88 million).
An audit of seven stadiums found that the real value of the “design, planning and projection” works was 2.73 billion rubles ($80 million). Not the 5.82 billion rubles ($171 million) contracted in 2012-13.
The Russian World Cup 2018 is planned to be held at 12 stadiums in 11 cities – in Moscow (2 venues), Kaliningrad, St. Petersburg, Volgograd, Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod, Samara, Saransk, Rostov-on-Don, Sochi and Yekaterinburg.
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