Exclusive: Sorokin reveals late September decision on Russia 2018 host cities

By David Gold

July 1 – Russia 2018 chief executive Alexey Sorokin has revealed to insideworldfootball that FIFA will make a decision on the host cities of the World Cup at the end of September.

It was already known that the final decision would be made in September this year, and a delegation from FIFA and Russia 2018 have just completed their tour of prospective host cities for the tournament.

They concluded the tour in Volgograd (pictured below), after visiting Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan, Saransk and Samara.

Talking to insideworldfootball after FIFA’s visits had finished, Sorokin (pictured top) said: “What is stunning is that there is a lot of enthusiasm about hosting it, starting from regional authorities down to ordinary people.

“Every city had outdoor advertising for their specific tours.

“Every city was greeted by the highest authority of the region, everywhere was very well organised.”

Though giving away nothing about any of the specific chances of the prospective host cities, Sorokin added that “what we know for sure is that it will be 27 or 28 [of September] when we expect the final decision.”

The Russia 2018 chief added that the tour had been beneficial for the host cities, giving them an invaluable chance to discuss with the head of the FIFA delegation, Jürgen Müller.

Müller’s experience, as head of the 2014, 2018 and 2022 World Cups, was keenly absorbed, Sorokin said.

“It was very positive, it is the first trip for FIFA through our country and…it was good for all these cities to see that the actual work has begun.

“That actual people from FIFA come over and explain to them what it takes to organise the World Cup.

“It was a dialogue rather than question and answers.

“[There was a] lot of clarification given by Müller and his colleagues

“I am sure that now they have more understanding about what is coming in the future.”

There are 13 prospective host cities in total, which seems likely to be reduced by two if more than one stadium is used in the capital, Moscow.

Regardless of which cities are chosen, Sorokin says that they are undaunted about the challenges ahead.

Indeed Sorokin refuses to describe the building of stadiums – every one has to either be built from scratch or reconstructed – and the development of transport infrastructure among others as challenges.

“I do not see it as a challenge – it is just a lot of work that we need to do,” he said.

“There is a lot of infrastructural development we have to undergo but there is nothing extraordinary and nothing we would regard as impossible.

“Certainly what is clear is that everyone is keen to use this opportunity to really accelerate the development in the European part of our country.”

There will be an evaluation report put together between now and September to help make the final decision, which was originally due to be made in 2013 but was brought forward a year.

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