Fifa boss unworried about Russia 2018 hooligans
DOHA: Fifa president Gianni Infantino said on Thursday he was not worried about hooliganism at next year’s Russia World Cup, amid growing fears the tournament could be blighted by fan violence.
Speaking in Qatar following a Fifa executive summit meeting, Infantino also said that football’s governing body has not asked Russian Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Mutko to resign as the tournament’s chief organiser.
“I am not concerned about trouble and violence in 2018,” Infantino told AFP and a small group of reporters on the sidelines of the meeting.
“I have full confidence in the Russian authorities, they are taking this matter very, very seriously.”
He added that Russian organisers had been in touch with Fifa, UEFA and the organisers of Euro 2016 in France, where Russian and English fans clashed in bloody street battles, especially in Marseille, leading to the expulsion of several Russians.
He added that Russia was a “welcoming country, which wants to celebrate football”.
Infantino’s comments came ahead of the broadcast of a television documentary in Britain on Thursday in which Russian hardline fans are said to threaten trouble against English fans who go to the World Cup.
Hardline hooligans warned that the 2018 World Cup would be a “festival of violence”.