SOCCER-WORLD/RUSSIA-ST. PETERSBURG FIFA party tours St. Petersburg stadium ahead of 2018 World Cup

Record ID: 140293

  • Title: SOCCER-WORLD/RUSSIA-ST. PETERSBURG FIFA party tours St. Petersburg stadium ahead of 2018 World Cup
  • Date: 2nd September 2015
  • Summary: ST. PETERSBURG, RUSSIA (SEPTEMBER 1, 2015) (REUTERS) NEW ZENIT STADIUM UNDER CONSTRUCTION CONSTRUCTION CRANES TRACTOR DRIVING BY STADIUM ENTRANCE COLUMN ST. PETERSBURG, RUSSIA (SEPTEMBER 2, 2015) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF FIFA DELEGATION IN FRONT OF STADIUM PLAN OF ARENA DELEGATION WALKING UP STEPS CONSTRUCTION CRANE (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) OPERATIONAL DIRECTOR OF WORLD CUP 2018
  • Embargoed: 17th September 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVAUS0KQ0ZIVLRGL8TW71EOG51M
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: A FIFA delegation made a tour of St. Petersburg's new state-of-the-art stadium on Wednesday (September 2) which is due to be completed next year.
    The stadium will be the home arena for FC Zenit St. Petersburg and will seat 69,000 people. It has been built to host matches in the Confederations Cup, a warm-up tournament, and then the 2018 World Cup itself.
    The project was designed by Japanese architect, Kisho Kurokawa, and is expected to be opened in May 2016.
    Operational Director of World Cup 2018 Organisational Committee, Dmitry Godunov, said the objective of the visit was to figure out technical points of the arena operation.
    "This visit should be called 'operational', because its main objective is not to check the process of construction, but to talk over on the spot together with our colleagues from FIFA, how the venue will operate during Confederations Cup, and essentially to take final operational decisions for the Confederations Cup preparations," he said.
    Head of FIFA's Monitoring Group For 2018 World Cup, Chris Unger, said the arena should be tested before it hosts matches of the championship.
    "The idea is that the stadium will be finished next year in time that we have matches, that we can test the different facilities of the stadium. We would not want the first match to be the opening match of the Confederations Cup," Unger said.
    St. Petersburg with a population of about 4.9 million used to be Russia's capital and is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the country, attracting over six million tourists each year according to the city's governor Georgy Poltavchenko.
    Other Russian cities to host World Cup matches in 2018 are Moscow, Kaliningrad, Sochi, Kazan, Saransk, Volgograd, Rostov-on-Don, Nizhny Novgorod, Yekaterinburg and Samara. The games will be held between June 14 and July 15 at 12 stadiums, two of which are located in the Russian capital.
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