MOSCOW, January 15. /TASS/. The Fisht Stadium in Russia’s southern resort city of Sochi is ready to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifying match between the national teams of Russia and Slovenia, Veniamin Bogomolov, the chief manager of the stadium, told TASS on Friday.
The press service of the Russian national football team announced earlier in the day that the Fisht Stadium was selected to host Russia-Slovenia qualifier, which is scheduled to kick off on March 27 at 5:00 p.m. Moscow time.
"We received an inquiry from the RFU [the Russian Football Union] regarding the stadium’s readiness to host the match," Bogomolov said. "We are fully ready, the pitch is ready and the match can be played already today and certainly on March 27. There are no problems at all on our behalf."
"In line with the decree of the Krasnodar Region’s governor on anti-COVID measures, the allowed volume of spectators at stadiums is 30% from the total capacity," he continued. "Our stadium’s current capacity stands at 43,700 and it means that 13,000 football fans will be able to attend the match."
The Fisht stadium was built for the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi in 2014. The stadium, which hosted the opening and closing ceremonies of the Winter Olympics, was later reconstructed to host the matches of the 2018 FIFA World Cup. The over 44,000-seat capacity stadium is located in Sochi Olympic Park and was named after Mount Fisht.
The Fisht Stadium previously hosted multiple international football fixtures including four matches of the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup and six matches of the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
Following the 2022 FIFA World Cup Preliminary Draw in Zurich on September 7, 2020 for Europe’s national teams, Russia was seeded in Group H with the national squads from Croatia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Cyprus and Malta.
Qatar is set to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup between November 21 and December 18 at eight stadiums in seven cities across the country, namely in Doha, Lusail, Al Wakrah, Al Khor, Al Rayyan, Umm Salal and Madinat ash Shamal.
Qatar won the right to host the matches of the 2022 FIFA World Cup on December 2, 2010.
In March 2015, FIFA officially announced that the 22nd edition of FIFA’s flagship event would be played in November and December 2022, with the final match set for December 18, 2022 - Qatar National Day - and with the objective, in principle, of holding the tournament in 28 days.