November 11 – Russian sports minister Vitaly Mutko may be facing the hardest few days of his sports career internationally over the doping scandal that has rocked athletics and the Olympic movement, bit at home in Russia World Cup 2018 plans are progressing with an emphasis on bringing more participants and fans into the game.
Volgograd, a region that saw one of its most famous professional clubs go bust but which is currently building a new stadium to host 2018 matches, has launched a new initiative designed to reverse a negative trend in sports participation in the region and push its teams towards achieving a higher profile.
The official organisation – roughly translated ‘Sports fans Volgograd region’ is targeting young people, teenagers, students to become involved in fan clubs and attend events to support local Volgograd teams.
The president of the new organization, Victor Lyakhov, said that Volgograd fans have always been among the most loyal in the country. He hopes this will also increase sports participation and generate the next generation of winning athletes.
So far, he says, the involvement of sports fan in the preparations for 2018 have been minimal, but that will change. The organisation is promising to come up with different proposals to engage the sporting community and the various local authorities.
But turning attitudes round will not be easy following the failure of Rotor Volgograd, one of Russia leading clubs in the 1990s, which recently closed professional operations.
Rotor Volgograd had fallen on hard times and were competing in the second division in the southern zone, effectively Russian football’s third tier. However, the club’s website has reported that a “new” amateur club, to be called Rotor Volgograd, will join the Russian third division
Volgograd is one of the 11 host cities for the 2018 World Cup and is having a new 45,000 capacity stadium constructed.
Built on the site of the city’s old Central Stadium, it will be completed in November 2017, according to local government officials. A government contract has been signed for 16.5 billion Rubles ($288 billion), and a down payment of 5 billion Rubles ($87 million) has already been made to start the build.
The stadium will be part of a sports complex that already houses a swimming pool and an athletics track. A basketball centre will also be built.
Local Volgograd government are claiming the project is a triumph for local firms with about 40 local companies already contracted to provide materials or work on the on the stadium.
If you want to check on the progress of the Volgograd World Cup stadium build have a look via the 24/7 webcam that permanently tracks the build in real time. Progress has been impressive. Last time we checked 10 months ago the site was in the early stages of clearance. Click the bottom button if you don’t read Russian ow.ly/Evdib
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