Russian President meets 2018 World Cup Organizing Committee

Huang Yue China Plus/AP Published: 2017-10-04 07:32:36
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Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) listens to deputy prime minister Vitaly Mutko as he chairs a meeting of the presidential council for physical culture and sports on the preparation for the 2018 FIFA World Cup at the Kremlin in Moscow on October 3, 2017. [Photo: VCG]

Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) listens to deputy prime minister Vitaly Mutko as he chairs a meeting of the presidential council for physical culture and sports on the preparation for the 2018 FIFA World Cup at the Kremlin in Moscow on October 3, 2017. [Photo: VCG]

Russian President Vladimir Putin has updated FIFA's World Cup Organizing Committee about the progress being made ahead of next year's World Cup.

Speaking to world football officials in Moscow, Putin has admitted to a current "lag" in venue construction process, which he is describing as "unacceptable."

"Of course the most important issue today is the readiness of venues. First of all, a lag behind the schedule of preparation for the World Cup is unacceptable. The colleagues and I looked at the models (of venues), we talked to the governors about the state of things. Overall it's quite satisfying. But there are still some delays. They are not critical, there is nothing terrible here, but as I have always said, I've said it many times and I want to repeat today - the most difficult thing is to resolve tasks at the final stage."

Russia is set to host football's showpiece event next summer at 12 stadiums in 11 different cities across Russia. 

Two of the stadiums are located in Moscow.

Alexey Sorokin, CEO of the Russia 2018 Organizing Committee, has confirmed they're looking at potentially expanding access to low-cost tickets for the event.

"Ticket sales started on September 14 of this year. 2.6 million tickets are planned to be sold. There are four (price) categories of tickets. Tickets of the fourth category, the most inexpensive ones, are available only for the Russian citizens. We continue working with FIFA on widening the quota of this fourth category."

Next year's World Cup is set to be held from mid-June to mid-July. 

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