Feature

Russia World Cup venues will be ready, insists minister

Leonid Stavitsky, Russia’s first deputy minister of construction, housing and utilities, has moved to allay any fears surrounding work on the country’s Fifa World Cup stadia, insisting that all venues will be ready for the national team football tournament in 2018.

Russia is due to host the World Cup from June 14 to July 15 next year.

Fifa, football’s global governing body, recently provided an update on the stadiums due to stage games at its showpiece tournament, with each venue said to be on track.

“The construction of sporting venues (for the 2018 Fifa World Cup), including in Kaliningrad, has now entered its final stage,” Stavitsky said, according to the press service of the government of Russia’s westernmost Kaliningrad Region.

“All facilities must be commissioned without delay by late December this year.”

Stavitsky was speaking during a working group visit to Kaliningrad. The Kaliningrad venue is said to be 83 per cent complete, with Russian news agency Tass reporting that the stadium will be ready to host test matches in March and April next year.

Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium is scheduled to host the opening match and the final of the 2018 World Cup.

Image: Marcello Casal Jr/Agência Brasil