Nothing is "quite as it seems in Sochi," according to Mark Ogden of ESPN.com. It is where the $780M Fisht Stadium will host Thursday's Confederations Cup semifinal between Germany and Mexico and "also four World Cup group games during Russia 2018." However, beyond the World Cup, Sochi "risks becoming a city with some of the most spectacular sporting facilities in the world but nobody to use them." This is "not a football city, yet so much was lavished on Sochi" by Vladimir Putin's government to stage the 2014 Winter Olympics that it was "always going to be invited to the World Cup party." It is a "stunning" resort, in the foothills of the Caucasus Mountains, but "there is no top-flight football club within 100 miles." In terms of legacy, it is "difficult to envisage football returning to Sochi after the World Cup." Just last week, its only club, FC Sochi, announced that "it will not compete at any level next season." In the longer term, it was "hoped" the club would become anchor tenants at the 47,000-capacity Fisht Stadium after the World Cup. That deal "now appears to be in some doubt following the vague statement issued by the club when announcing its decision to take a year out." With "so much money invested in the city, not to mention the political capital, the fallout from the World Cup will be tough to manage and it will be incredibly hard to stop" the Fisht Stadium from "becoming another monument to previous excesses." There are "similar concerns" that the new arena being built in Saransk will also become a "ghost stadium" after the World Cup. With Mordovia Saransk relegated from the Russian Premier League in '15-16 and then from the second division last season, "there will be no top flight tenant to take residence" in '18 (ESPN.com, 6/27).
