Sepp Blatter casts doubt on Russia plans

Brazil President Dilma Rousseff with Fifa president Sepp Blatter
and Russian President Vladimir Putin. — AP

Fifa president Sepp Blatter threw an unexpected seed of doubt into Russia’s preparations for the 2018 World Cup on Monday when he said that Fifa will discuss the possibility of reducing the number of stadiums to be used there in four years time.

Two days after Russian sports minister Vitaly Mutko gave media detailed background about Russia’s plans for their World Cup which involves 12 stadiums in 11 cities, Blatter implied that they could be re-examined.

“It’s a footballing country but we will have meetings there in September to see if 12 is the right number and even if they could be reduced to 10.” His comments came as a complete surprise to Alexei Sorokin, the chief executive officer of the Russian Organising Committee who told reporters: “This is the first I have heard about it, we know nothing about this.”

Blatter, speaking at his final media briefing following Germany’s win over Argentina in Sunday’s final, said a Fifa delegation will visit Russia to discuss plans in September.