Petersburg should guarantee football arena construction: FIFA

FIFA expects the city to provide all guarantees and fulfil all its obligations. Correspondingly, the stadium will be built in compliance with the earlier approved timeframe, i.e. until the end of 2016, reports Tass.

As was reported on Friday, the St. Petersburg administration financing the Zenit Arena construction submitted a report to law enforcement bodies about a shortage of 2.5 billion rubles ($39 million), which the general contractor, Inzhtransstroy-Spb, could not explain.

The St. Petersburg authorities also sent a notice to Inzhtransstroy-Spb on Friday about cancelling the contract. After this notification, Chairman of Russia’s Federation Council commission for preparations for the 2018 World Cup Vadim Tyulpanov told Tass that in the event of the contract’s cancellation, a new general contractor might extend the deadline of the stadium construction and the new arena might not be commissioned by December 2016, due to which St. Petersburg might fail to host the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup.

Later, Russian Sports Minister and Chairman of the Russia 2018 FIFA World Cup Organising Committee Vitaly Mutko said that the option of replacing the stadium on Krestovsky Island slated for hosting the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup was not on the agenda and the new arena would be built on time.

The stadium that will host 2018 FIFA World Cup matches was laid down in the western portion of Krestovsky Island in St. Petersburg in 2007. The construction project was amended three times: in 2008, 2010 and 2013. 

Each time, the cost of the arena was increased from the initial estimate of 6.7 billion rubles ($268 million at the average ruble/US dollar exchange rate for 2007) to possible 43.8 billion rubles ($692 million at the current exchange rate).

Tass earlier reported that the budget estimate for the Zenit-Arena stadium construction had been raised by 4.3 billion rubles ($68 million) to 39.2 billion rubles ($619 million at the current exchange rate).

The country selected 11 host cities to be the venues for the matches of the 2018 World Cup. The matches of the 2018 World Cup will be held between June 14 and July 15 at 12 stadiums located in the 11 mentioned above cities across Russia. 

Two of the stadiums are located in the Russian capital. The FIFA Confederations Cup will be held in four Russian cities —Moscow, St. Petersburg, Sochi and Kazan —from June 17 to July 2, 2017.