Russia national football coach Fabio Capello "incurred the wrath of Russian legislators after declining an invitation to a State Duma session on Monday that was discussing the 2018 World Cup finals," according to Dmitriy Rogovitskiy of REUTERS. The 68-year-old Italian, "under fire already" over his team's recent performances, "was officially invited to attend the meeting in the lower house of Russia's legislature but turned it down, a decision not well received by some of Russia's lawmakers." Russian nationalist politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky said, "He could not give a damn about our thoughts. He will only do what he feels is necessary. Head coaches have been sacked in such circumstances." World Cup 2018 organizer Alexey Sorokin told the State Duma that "the match venues for the competition in Russia were now fixed with 12 stadiums scheduled to be used in 11 cities." Sorokin said, "It is unlikely there will be any alterations. To change any of the host cities would have a negative impact on the tournament, so therefore we are leaving everything as it is" (REUTERS, 10/27).
