FIFA comments on Russian cities readiness for 2018 World Cup

MOSCOW. KAZINFORM The International Federation of Football Associations (FIFA) has spoken highly of the degree of the host cities' readiness for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, Alexey Sorokin, the Director General of the Local Organizing Committee (LOC) Russia-2018, said at a joint meeting of the Presidential Council for the Development of Physical Culture and Sports and the Supervisory Board of the Russia-2018 Organizing Committee, TASS reports.

The meeting was dedicated to the results of the 2017 Confederations Cup held in Russia and preparations for the 2018 World Cup.
"Inspection visits [to the host cities] are held regularly together with FIFA experts. The sixth, last but one visit, is being held now. FIFA experts assess the level of preparedness of stadiums and major World Cup facilities. The inspectors have already visited Yekaterinburg, Samara, Nizhny Novgorod, Saransk, and Rostov-on-Don. Today they are evaluating Volgograd, and tomorrow FIFA experts will visit Kaliningrad," Sorokin said.

To date, FIFA, as a whole, has had a favorable view of the degree of the host cities' readiness for the tournament," he noted.

The official ball of the 2018 FIFA World Cup hosted by Russia will be presented ahead of the Final Draw scheduled to be held in the Kremlin, Moscow, on December 1, he went on.

"The tournament is actively advanced at the moment. The FIFA World Cup Trophy Tour has started. Before the end of 2017, the tournament's Official Poster will be unveiled. The official ball will be shown ahead of the draw," Sorokin said.

Krasava by Adidas was the Official Match Ball at the FIFA Confederations Cup hosted by Russia in 2017.

The FIFA World Cup Trophy Tour kicked off on September 9 in Moscow. The trophy will be on display in 15 cities from September to December, after which it will be sent abroad and exhibited in more than 50 countries around the world. The trophy will then return to Russia and visit nine more Russian cities. The total length of the tour is more than 27,000 km.

Russia selected 11 host cities to be the venues for the matches of the 2018 World Cup and they are Moscow, St. Petersburg, Sochi, Kazan, Saransk, Kaliningrad, Volgograd, Rostov-on-Don, Nizhny Novgorod, Yekaterinburg, and Samara.

The matches of the 2018 World Cup will be held between June 14 and July 15 at 12 stadiums located in the 11 above-mentioned cities across Russia. Two of the stadiums are located in the Russian capital.