Russia 'on track' to hold 2018 World Cup: FIFA chief

Russia is following an approved schedule in organising the 2017 Confederations Cup and the 2018 World Cup, world football governing body FIFA's President Gianni Infantino has said.

"When it comes to the World Cup, everything is on the track and we have received the necessary guarantees that the deadlines will be hit and everything will be completed by the end of this year," Infantino said on Tuesday, reports Tass.

Infantino was addressing a news conference following a FIFA Council here.

"Work is on schedule when it comes to the stadiums. There is still a lot of work to be done and still deadlines to be fixed in some stadiums," he added.

The 2017 Confederations Cup will be held next year between June 17 and July 2 at four stadiums in Russia and they are Otkritie-Arena in Moscow, St. Petersburg Arena, Fisht in Sochi and Kazan-Arena in Kazan.

Russia is currently in full-swing preparations for the global football tournaments after the country won the bid to host the 2018 World Cup at the FIFA Congress in 2010.

The country selected 11 host cities to be the venues for the matches of the 2018 World Cup. They are 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 between June 14 and July 15 at 12 stadiums in 11 cities across Russia. Two of the stadiums are located in the Russian capital.

--IANS

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