news of world cup 2018

The Russia 2018 Organising Committee Management Board held its third meeting in Moscow on 28 January.

The board consists of Russia 2018 Organising Committee Chairman and Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko,Russia 2018 Organising Committee CEO Alexey Sorokin, RFU President Nikolai Tolstykh, and representatives of the ministries of Finance, Transport, Internal Affairs, Justice, Foreign Affairs and Regional Development.

As part of the meeting, members of the Management Board accepted a report on work undertaken by the Organising Committee over the last period, and approved both work and financial plans for the organisation for 2014. The unveiling of the official emblem, slogan and styling of the 2018 FIFA World Cup™, which will take place in September, is set to be a key event for the coming year. Also in 2014, the Organising Committee will begin actively preparing for the first official 2018 World Cup event: the pre-competition draw, to be held in St. Petersburg on 25 July 2015.

"The preliminary draw for the 2018 World Cup will become Russia's calling card, allowing the whole world to see how able we are to host the tournament in 2018," Mutko said. "That is why it is imperative that preparation for this event be thorough and of high quality, and that the draw itself be a memorable event for all football fans."

The Organising Committee managers also showed board members the Video Monitoring Control Centre for 2018 World Cup Stadium Construction, located in the offices of Arena 2018 – an organization authorised to oversee and monitor design and construction progress at 2018 World Cup stadiums on behalf of the Organising Committee, and ensure compliance with FIFA requirements. Control Centre specialists can monitor progress in real time via cameras installed at the construction sites of all 12 tournament arenas.

“The video surveillance system will be vital for monitoring construction of the 2018 World Cup stadiums. We intend to keep strict control over both stadium construction schedules and compliance with the stadium requirements set out by FIFA,” Mutko continued.

At present, two World Cup stadiums – in Kazan and Sochi – have already been completed. Moscow's Spartak FC Arena is expected to be operational in the summer of 2014, while work also continues at St. Petersburg's Krestovsky Island stadium.

The remaining eight arenas are in the final design stage. Construction at sites in Volgograd, Yekaterinburg, Kaliningrad, Nizhny Novgorod, Samara, Saransk, Rostov-on-Don, as well as the reconstruction of Moscow's Luzhniki stadium, is expected to begin this year.