adminMOSCOW. — Russia’s sports minister says preparations for the 2018 World Cup soccer finals are on track but admits to delays in the construction of hotels in host cities. “Overall work done in the framework of the federal programme for infrastructure preparation is on schedule,” sports minister Vitaly Mutko told R-Sport news agency yesterday. Mutko added that Russia’s “complicated economic situation” — in part linked to Western sanctions and low oil prices — had not affected its investment budget for World Cup preparations.
The sports minister however deplored that economic woes had slowed the construction of hotels in some of the 11 tournament host cities. “There are problems with delays in the construction of hotels in a number of regions because most of them are investment projects,” Mutko said.
“The crisis could not but affect investors,” he said, adding that the cities of Kaliningrad, Volgograd and Rostov-on-Don had experienced issues. Mutko said he was confident the problems would be resolved in the “near future”.
Russia in June slashed its World Cup budget by nearly 30 billion rubles ($448 million), sparking fears that the country’s ambitious project would be marred with delays. — AFP.
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