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2018 FIFA WORLD CUP IN RUSSIA

Number of Russian cities to host 2018 World Cup remain unchanged — Putin

The Russian president said that for Russia it was important not only to host the world football championship, but to use it as a tool for the development of sports and transport infrastructure

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President Putin visits new stadium in Moscow built for Spartak FC

''History has shown so far that boycotting sport events or a policy of isolation or confrontation are not the most effective ways to solve problems,'' FIFA said in its statement in July.

Speaking further about the 2018 World Cup, the Russian president said that for Russia it was important not only to host the world football championship, but to use it as a tool for the development of sports and transport infrastructure.

Putin admitted that in terms of financial spending the World Cup for Russia will be an "uneasy story".

He thanked the International Federation of Football Associations (FIFA) and its President Sepp Blatter for permission to reduce the capacity of stadiums from 45,000 seats to 35,000 seats.

“This reduces construction costs,” he said adding that such decision was made by FIFA “not to make something pleasant for us [Russia], but basing on the analysis results of stadiums use at the World Cup in Brazil.”

Russia won the bid to host the 2018 World Cup over three years ago in a tight race against the joint bid from England, Portugal and Spain and the joint bid on behalf of Belgium and the Netherlands.

Shortly before Brazil’s fabulous city of Rio de Janeiro dropped the curtains on the 2014 World Cup with the final Germany-Argentina clash on July 13, the baton of the global football tournament’s hosting nations was passed on to Russia.

The symbolic hand-over ceremony of the right to host the World Cup tournament was held at the iconic 74,700-seat capacity Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro and was attended by FIFA President Blatter, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff and Russian President Putin.

Blatter said earlier that he intended to pay a visit to Russia in September to monitor the preparation work for the championship in 2018.

Following an official ceremony held in September 2012 and attended by Blatter, Russia eventually selected 11 out of the earlier proposed 13 cities, excluding Krasnodar and Yaroslavl. The final list of the 2018 World Cup host cities includes Moscow, St. Petersburg, Sochi, Kazan, Saransk, Kaliningrad, Volgograd, Rostov-on-Don, Nizhny Novgorod, Yekaterinburg and Samara.

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