Russia To Announce 2018 World Cup Host Cities Later This Month

The Local Organizing Committee and FIFA will announce the host cities of the 2018 FIFA Russia World Cup on Sept. 29 in Moscow. The 13 cities competing to host the event are: Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kaliningrad, Yaroslavl, Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan, Samara, Saransk, Volgograd, Krasnodar, Rostov-on-Don, Sochi and Ekaterinburg. Details on the format of the event will be released at a later date (FIFA). REUTERS' Gennady Fyodorov reported that LOC Head Vitaly Mutko said that the tournament "will be played in 12 stadiums located in 11 cities." Moscow will have two venues -- the 90,000-seat Luzhniki stadium, which will host the final, and another to be chosen from two 45,000-seat arenas being built by the Spartak and Dynamo clubs. LOC "would not reveal the outsiders," but most experts said that the two cities likely to be cut are Saransk, home to the smallest venue, and Yekaterinburg, located at the foot of the Ural mountains near the Europe-Asia border, approximately 1,800 kilometers from Moscow (REUTERS, 9/5).