By David Gold in Moscow
June 23 – Key delegates from the world of sport will gather here from this evening for the Inside World Football Moscow Forum, with FIFA general secretary Jerome Valcke the keynote speaker for the event.
They will be joined by high level delegates from the world of business whose organisations will be involved in construction of Russia’s stadia and infrastructure in the years ahead.
Valcke will be addressing the forum with a keynote speech in which he will discuss the challenges and opportunities for Russia in the next seven years as it prepares to host the 2018 World Cup.
His speech will be followed by an on stage interview conducted by insideworldfootball editor Duncan Mackay with Alexey Sorokin, the chief of the Russia 2018 Organising Committee.
Following on from the interview, there will be a presentation from Valentin Gapanovich, the senior vice-President of Russian Railways, on the “Modernisation of Russian Transport in the build-up to 2018”.
There will also be a number of exciting sessions looking at the spectrum of issues Russia will have to contend with in its preparations.
The first of these discussions will focus on Russia’s efforts to transform and improve its Premier League in the coming years, and will include the league’s executive director Sergei Cheban, CSKA Moscow executive director Evgeny Giner, his Tottenham Hotspur counterpart Donna Cullen and Premier League general secretary Nic Coward.
The session will be moderated by Sergei Shishkarev, the chairman of the Committee for Grassroots Football at the Russian Football Union (RFU), and chairman of the Russian Federation’s State Duma Transport Committee.
A second session looking at Russia’s plans to renovate and build a number of new stadiums fit for the World Cup will be moderated by Damion Potter, the head of the commercial team of UK Trade and Industry in Russia.
The speakers on this session will be Alexander Djordjadze, deputy chief executive and international relations director of the Russia 2018 Organising Committee, David Thomson, group events director at the Football Association and executive board member of Wembley Stadium, John Barrow, the senior principal of Populous, and Diarmuid Crowley, senior vice president of IMG.
A third session looking at the development of infrastructure and modernisation of Russia in the coming years will be moderated by Hazem Galal, partner at PwC Brazil, and feature Andrew Garbutt, the director of programme management at AECOM, Dr. Lorenz Schneider, managing director of Tilke & Partners, and Karina Chichkanova, partner and head of Russian infrastructure & PPP Practice at Salans.
The final session will focus on the grass roots changes and social impact that the World Cup can have in the country in the coming decade and beyond.
This discussion will be moderated by Svetlana Picou, the senior vice-President and head of global Olympic at Weber Shandwick, and speakers will be ex-Chelsea star Alexey Smertin, an adviser to the President of Lokomotiv FC and former captain of Russia, Peter Lidov, director of public relations at MegaFon, Szymon Konop, the key projects audit manager of Poland 2012 and Alexander Zorkov, deputy general secretary of the RFU.
The forum promises to provide crucial insights into Russia’s preparations for the World Cup, and to follow the latest developments and news from the forum will appear here first on insideworldfootball.biz.
Contact the writer of this story at zib.l1734860028labto1734860028ofdlr1734860028owedi1734860028sni@d1734860028log.d1734860028ivad1734860028
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