MOSCOW – Russia is avoiding Brazil’s mistakes.
That was the message as FIFA inspectors completed their tour of the arenas Russia is building for the 2018 World Cup – no delays here.
While Brazil’s World Cup passed off largely smoothly, its build-up was dominated by the rushed finish to stadium construction and, even during the tournament itself, some stadiums were still unfinished and forced to deploy temporary seating and facilities.
In Russia, things are different, said Chris Unger, FIFA’s top official overseeing Russian preparations, on Monday as he visited Moscow’s vast Luzhniki Stadium, which will host the final in 2018.
"As we heard today, they seem to be ahead of schedule (at Luzhniki) which is good for everybody, because the sooner they finish, the sooner we can begin testing," he said.
Earlier on his five-day tour of the stadiums, Unger had said St. Petersburg’s new 69,000-seat arena, set to host a 2018 semifinal, was back on track to open in mid-2016 and host Confederations Cup games a year later. The arena, planned as a new home for Zenit St. Petersburg years before Russia won the right to host the World Cup, is almost six years behind its original opening date which looked likely to slip back to 2017, when it will hold Confederation Cup games.