Stadium news #3
In 2010, Joseph Blatter announced that Russia was chosen to host the 2018 FIFA World Cup and that Qatar was chosen to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Russia and Qatar never hosted a FIFA World Cup match. Qatar is scheduled to host the first-ever FIFA World Cup match in the Middle East. The world championship for national football teams in Russia is scheduled to take place from 14 June to 15 July. The matches are planned to be played in Kaliningrad, Kazan, Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Rostov-on-Don, Samara, Saransk, Sochi, St. Petersburg, Volgograd and Yekaterinburg. Moscow is scheduled to host the final of the tournament and it will probably become the only city with two 2018 FIFA World Cup venues.
The stadium in Samara
The Samara Arena in Samara is planned to be one of the 12 venues for the FIFA World Cup. All 2018 FIFA World Cup stadiums require a minimum capacity of 30,000 according to FIFA, the highest governing body of football. The Samara Arena failed to be ready in December 2017. Later, it failed to be ready in March. The latest deadline for the opening of the venue is in April, a few weeks before the start of the FIFA World Cup. The future home of football club Krylia Sovetov won’t be completely ready by then, but it will probably meet the minimal requirements to safely hold a game.
Matches at the Samara Arena and the first-ever FIFA World Cup
The Samara Arena will probably host its first FIFA World Cup match on 17 June 2018, when the national football team of Costa Rica is scheduled to face Serbia. Australia, Colombia, Denmark, Russia, Senegal and Uruguay are also scheduled to play one FIFA World Cup group-stage match at the stadium. The national football team of Uruguay won the first-ever edition of the FIFA World Cup, which took place in Uruguay in 1930.
