The installation of the Samara stadium's pitch has been delayed by winter weather.GETTY IMAGES
FIFA warned on Wednesday that a "huge amount of work still needs to be done" to get the stadium in Samara, Russia, ready for the World Cup, which kicks off on June 14, according to Gennady Novik of REUTERS. With less than three months remaining before the 45,000-seat venue is due to host a Group E match between Costa Rica and Serbia, "the pitch has yet to be laid." Construction work at the Samara Arena, one of 12 venues that will stage World Cup matches this year, has been "hit by a number of setbacks in recent months." FIFA Chief Competitions & Events Officer Colin Smith said that the "full support and commitment" of Russian authorities and the venue's contractor were "essential for the venue to be commissioned by the end of April as had been originally planned." Local organizing committee CEO Alexei Sorokin "assured that the work on the venue would be completed by the end of April." The stadium will host four group-stage matches (REUTERS, 3/21). The AP reported the stadium in Samara was "already badly delayed due to a complex roof design," but now cold weather in the Russian spring is "causing further problems." The pitch cannot be installed "until the weather warms up." As of Tuesday, instead of a field, there was "an area covered with tarpaulins and snow." Temperatures are forecast to "stay slightly below freezing for the rest of the week." Samara Deputy Governor Alexander Fetisov said, "I'd like to avoid unnecessary dramatization of the situation. Everything is being done so that the stadium is commissioned in the time required" (AP, 3/21).
