Russia gets ready for World Cup
Russia has been in the headlines for all the wrong reasons recently. Can it pull off soccer’s biggest spectacle?
INCREDIBLE infrastructure, sparkling cities and state-of-the art stadiums. Russia has spared no expense in its preparations to host the 2018 Fifa World Cup and with less than three months to go until kick-off, the country is ready to receive the world. But how many soccer fans will show up is another matter entirely. After an alleged assassination attempt on a former Russian spy living in the UK, to say Russia is looking a little less than kosher is something of an understatement.
Russian president Vladimir Putin has denied any involvement in the nerve gas attack last month on former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, but the UK is having none of it. British prime minister Theresa May expelled 20 Russian diplomats from the country, and their allies in the West showed solidarity by expelling 100 diplomats among them – 60 from the US alone.
Of the 31 countries that qualified for the World Cup, at least nine have taken action against Russian diplomats in the wake of the Skripal poisoning. None has mentioned World Cup sanctions, but with a nasty taste in soccer-mad England’s mouth, there’s no telling what the next few weeks may hold.
Political tension isn’t Russia’s only challenge. Here’s where things stand.
THE GOOD
Russia got to work soon after winning the bid, allocating an estimated $10 billion (R115 billion) to bringing its cities up to scratch. There’s a distance of 640km between the host cities in the vast country, so much of the budget went to transport infrastructure. Many of the airports in host cities received an overhaul and brand-new tram lines were laid in Samara in southwestern Russia.
Several luxury hotels were built across the country too. But the most impressive feat has been the stadiums. Of the 12 to be used for the World Cup, more than half were built from scratch and the rest received major revamps.
The two largest stadiums in the country – the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow and the Saint Petersburg Stadium – will play host to most of the 64 games, with seven matches to be played at each.
Luzhniki is the venue for the all-important final match. The huge venue was opened in 1956 and has seen major sporting events over the decades, including the 1980 Olympic Games. Luzhniki is also where, in 1982, a stampede left 66 people dead in the country’s worst sportrelated disaster.
The iconic stadium was given a £300 million (R4,95 billion) revamp for the World Cup. Seating was increased from 78 000 to 81 000, the athletics track was removed and stands were positioned closer to the pitch.
The natural grass in the hi-tech arena is kept alive in the freezing Russian winters by artificial light from special lamps. The arena’s roof, now extended to shelter all the stands, will be turned into a giant screen to broadcast the matches.
Unlike Luzhniki, the St Petersburg Stadium is brand new and has been under construction for more than a decade. Now the home of FC Zenit St Petersburg, the 67 000-seater arena cost about $1 billion (R11,5 billion) to build – reportedly taking the project 548% over budget.
Kisho Kurokawa, the Japanese architect who designed the seven-storey structure, wanted it to look like “a spaceship that has landed on the shores of the Gulf of Finland”, Fifa’s website says. The venue boasts impressive tech, including a retractable roof and a sliding pitch.
Other venues include Fisht Olympic Stadium in Sochi, built for the Winter Olympics; Kazan Arena, built for the
‘If racism happens in the World Cup, it will be really gross and ugly’
Summer World University Games in 2013; and the brand-new Nizhny Novgorod Stadium, designed to represent water and wind.
Not all the stadiums are quite ready. The Samara Arena made headlines in March when it emerged there was still a huge amount of work to be done on it. The 45 000-seat venue is due to host a Group E match between Costa Rica and Serbia in less than three months – and the pitch had yet to be laid.
THE BAD
Racism Playing football against top-tier Russian sides hasn’t been pleasant for black players in many years – and a recent incident left a decidedly foul taste in the mouths of many. On 27 March, Russian fans chanted racist slurs during a World Cup warm-up match between the home side and France in St Petersburg, calling some French players “monkeys”.
Fifa said it’s investigating the incident and Russia pledged to crack down on racism on the field.
But former Zenit St Petersburg star striker Hulk (real name Givanildo Vieira de Sousa) says racism is par for the course in Russia. The Brazilian claims he’s repeatedly experienced racism from fans, and even referees. “If it [racism] happens in the World Cup, it will be really gross and really ugly,” he says. Hooliganism Russia showed it had its own special brand of soccer-mad undesirables in the French city of Marseille during Euro 2016.
Russian fans caused days of chaos during the tournament, clashing with their English counterparts. More than 31 people were injured in street clashes that one spectator described to CNN as a “war scene”.
Shockingly, Igor Lebedev, deputy chairman of the Russian parliament, congratulated the attackers for defending their country’s honour. A year later he proposed the solution to Russia’s problems was to turn hooliganism – or “draka”, the Russian word for fight – into a spectator sport.
Several months later, Russian fans turned on one another at a Russian Premier League game between CSKA Moscow and Zenit St Petersburg. In a recent BBC documentary, one Russian fan said trouble is “100% guaranteed” at the World Cup.
Despite this, Fifa president Gianni Infantino says he’s not at all concerned by the threat of hooliganism, adding he has full confidence in the Russian authorities.
AND THEN THERE’S PUTIN
Relations between Russia and the West have never been great but things have taken a dramatic turn for the worse since Russia bid for the tournament way back in 2008. First their successful bid was mired in allegations of bribery, then Russia was embroiled in wars in Ukraine and Syria. The sensational Olympic doping scandal followed, when it was discovered dozens of Russian athletes were taking banned substances. Next came the country’s dodgy involvement in the US election that saw Donald Trump elected to the White House – and now there’s the Skripal poisoning scandal. Even a wildly successful World Cup is unlikely to do much for President Vladimir Putin’s global prestige, Simon Kuper of the Financial Times says. “Russia will presumably host a smooth World Cup, but that feat carries little prestige since even Jacob Zuma’s South Africa managed it in 2010. “And though Western countries don’t boycott World Cups, few of their politicians, sponsors and fans will come.” SOURCES: FIFA.COM, THE SUN, THE MIRROR, THE GUARDIAN, REUTERS, CNN, FINANCIAL TIMES