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Russian Football Union files bid for hosting UEFA Super Cup match in Kazan in 2022 or 2023

Kazan Arena is proposed as the venue

MOSCOW, October 28. /TASS/. The Russian Football Union (RFU) submitted a bid on Monday for the right to host the UEFA (the Union of European Football Associations) Super Cup match due either in 2022 or 2023 in Kazan, the capital of the Russian republic of Tatarstan, the press service of the republic’s Sports Ministry announced on Monday.

"The Russian Football Union is set to officially submit its bid today for hosting the UEFA Super Cup match in 2022 or in 2023," Vladimir Leonov, the sports minister of the Republic of Tatarstan, was quoted as saying prior to filing the bid.

"All of the required documents, as well as answers to the relevant questions from UEFA, have been submitted on our behalf," Leonov commented regarding the bid to host the much-awaited football match between the top two European teams. "The final decision on this issue will be made only in the spring of 2020."

"Kazan-Arena will be the main venue [in Russia] vying to host the UEFA Super Cup match and this stadium complies with all the requirements," the RFU official said.

"The bid also lists all the city infrastructure facilities, the map of the stadium’s entrance gates and the rest of the guarantees," Leonov said. "Moreover, we are speaking here about an enormous experience of Kazan hosting previous large-scale sports events."

"This bid has been approved at all government levels, it was approved by Russian Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets, an interdepartmental commission on the organization of international sports tournaments on the territory of the Russian Federation, the Russian Ministry of Sports and by Russian Sports Minister Pavel Kolobkov personally, as well as the RFU President Alexander Dyukov," the sports minister of the Republic of Tatarstan stated.

"Kazan-Arena was opened in 2013 and served as a venue for hosting the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup as well as matches of the 2018 FIFA World Cup," a statement of the RFU reads.

RFU President Alexander Dyukov claimed: "We will be actively drawing on the legacy of the successfully organized [2018] world football championship."

Russia hosted its first-ever FIFA World Cup in 2018, which kicked off in Moscow with a remarkable opening show at Luzhniki Stadium on the evening of June 14 and ended with a spectacular final match, played also at the Luzhniki Stadium, where France defeated Croatia 4-2 to win the much-coveted World Cup Trophy.

The city of Kazan organized the matches of the quadrennial championship in 2018, being among 11 cities across the country holding the football games — Moscow, St. Petersburg, Sochi, Kazan, Saransk, Kaliningrad, Volgograd, Rostov-on-Don, Nizhny Novgorod, Yekaterinburg and Samara.

"Kazan is a very hospitable and modern city, which is ready to organize a global-scale football event at the highest possible level due to its many-year sports traditions, and the affection of its residents to football and sports, and, particularly to the well-developed sports infrastructure," Dyukov added.

The UEFA Super Cup is an official event, which precedes the opening of the European football tournament. The UEFA Super Cup is a one-match tournament between the winning clubs of the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Europa League. The Stade Louis II Arena in Monaco was the permanent venue for the annual UEFA Super Cup matches between 1998 and 2012.

In 2012, the UEFA ruled against holding Super Cups at the permanent venue, i.e. at the Stade Louis II Arena in Monaco, and based on the applications filed the organization started searching for new venues to host the landmark football event. Since 2013, the UEFA Super Cup matches have been played at stadiums across Europe. Russia has never hosted any of them.

In 2020, the Estadio do Dragao in Porto, Portugal, will stage the season-opener, while Windsor Park in Belfast, Northern Ireland, will host the 2021 UEFA Super Cup.