ST. PETERSBURG, October 16. /TASS/. An evaluation commission from the Federation of International Football Associations (FIFA) said it was satisfied with the course of construction works of a stadium in St. Petersburg, which will be one of 12 Russian stadiums to host matches of the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

A joint delegation of FIFA representatives and Russia’s Local Organizing Committee are inspecting on October 16-23 the construction of Russian stadiums, which were selected to host the 2018 World Cup matches.

Christian Unger, who leads the current FIFA delegation, said there were no reasons to worry about the terms of the stadium’s final readiness and it would be commissioned as it was planned, i.e. in May of 2016. The official said that in his opinion it is one of the best staiums in Russia and located in the ideal place.

This is the first large-scale visit of FIFA evaluation commission to inspect the readiness of the Russian cities for the 2018 World Cup and there were planned seven more similar inspections before the launch of the world championship.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said in August that the number of 12 stadiums in a total of 11 cities selected to host the World Cup would not be changed. The Russian president said, however, that in terms of financial spending on the World Cup preparations for Russia would be an “uneasy story,” but manageable.

In this regard Putin thanked FIFA and its President Sepp Blatter for permission to reduce the capacity of stadiums from 45,000 seats to 35,000 seats.

Russia wins the right to host FIFA World Cup in 2018

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.

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.

The matches of the 2018 World Cup will be held at 12 stadiums located in the 11 mentioned above cities across Russia.