Feature

Straw Zenit Arena pokes fun at Russian World Cup

After years of negativity over their Fifa World Cup 2018 plans, this must be the last straw for Russian organisers.

The 68,000-capacity Zenit Arena, which opened recently, some nine years after initial projections, has been recreated in straw by farmers in the village of Krasnoye in the Stavropol region.

The Sports.ru website reports that the new ‘stadium’ took precisely five days to build.

At the entrance, a tongue-in-cheek sign, poking fun at rumours of corruption that have dogged the build up to the tournament, reads: “Not a single ruble was stolen during the construction of this stadium.”

At the end of July, the straw stadium builders will stage a ‘World Cup for Straw Football’, with referees, teams and trophy cups, farmer Roman Ponomarev said.

The straw arena cost about $670 (£520/€580), which would make little dent in the $8.2bn expected to be spent on infrastructure for the World Cup.

IMAGE: belultras (Instagram)/Andrew Shiva (Wikipedia)

Posted in FeatureTagged | | |