MOSCOW — Two stadiums in Moscow will host some 2018 World Cup games, among the dozen arenas finalized by FIFA Saturday for the first cup in Russia. The centerpiece will be Moscow's 89,000-seat Luzhniki Stadium, which hosted the Champions League final in 2008. Work on redeveloping it is due for completion in 2016. Spartak Moscow's stadium also made the cut over the arena being built for Dynamo Moscow, which was squeezed out as a result of FIFA decreeing that only two stadiums could be used in the capital. Among the 11 cities to host matches are St. Petersburg, and the Black Sea city of Sochi, which is also set to host the 2014 Winter Olympics. The others are Yekaterinburg, Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod, Rostov-on-Don, Samara, Kaliningrad, Volgograd and Saransk. With the exception of Yekaterinburg, all the host cities lie west of the Urals Mountains, which is traditionally deemed to mark the boundary between Europe and Asia. Some have nonetheless raised concerns about the distances some football fans may have to travel. Arenas in Kaliningrad, a Baltic Sea exclave tucked between Poland and Lithuania, and Yekaterinburg will be separated by 2,500 kilometers and three time zones. Russian football officials have pointed out that distances have also been great in previous host nations. Russian President Vladimir Putin also said Saturday that air and railway travel would be subsidized during the competition, which will bring costs down for fans. “Nobody will be left out in this festival of sport,” Putin said. Russia has faced questions about its ability to successfully organize the competition amid concern at reports of rampant racism seen among football fans at the nation's stadiums. Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko has pledged that Russia will work hard to combat discrimination among fans. FIFA President Sepp Blatter said at the venue announcement that Russia's preparations were ahead of schedule. Russia, meanwhile, will have to almost double the projected budget to host the World Cup, the country's top sports official said Sunday. The new 600 billion ruble ($19.2 billion) preliminary budget, announced by Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko, is almost twice the sum projected by then-Prime Minister Vladimir Putin when Russia was awarded the World Cup in December 2010. “These are not the final numbers,” Mutko said at a joint press conference with Blatter a day after 12 host cities were finalized by FIFA and announced late Saturday. “We can call the figures a rough estimate,” Mutko said. “It is what is required to do everything necessary so we can stage a high-quality championships in Russia.” About 40 percent of the money will be spent to construct or refurbish 12 stadiums required for the tournament. The rest of the budget will be spent on upgrades to transport and hospitality infrastructure in the 11 host cities. The costs are expected to be split evenly between the public and private sectors, Mutko said. Blatter said Russia was well ahead of schedule toward hosting the 2018 World Cup. Blatter said that Russia's “new approach” was more efficient than that of South Africa in 2010 or Brazil which will host the 2014 edition. “We are one year ahead of schedule. This is a new approach for organizing World Cups,” the FIFA president said. After a bid championed by Putin, Russia was in December 2010 awarded the right to host the World Cup by FIFA in a hugely controversial decision which was bitterly criticized by beaten rivals including England. But Blatter emphasized the historic nature of hosting the event for the first time in eastern Europe, saying FIFA had decided to skip the “traditional houses” of western Europe. He said that after winning the right to host the World Cup in 2010, the South Africans were “just dancing” with joy and had to be told by FIFA to get to work. Brazil, meanwhile, had expressed confidence that the country is ready “but that is not exactly the case,” Blatter said. “The Russians started to work so hard right from the start. It is a different approach. I am very happy.” — Agencies
