The Russian city of Saransk took part in a World Cup 2018 stadium construction seminar in Moscow on Monday, showing its eagerness to make the final cut of 11 cities to stage the football extravaganza.
Of 13 Russian cities bidding to hold matches, only 11 will be included in the final list, which is to be announced by FIFA on September 29.
Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko last week named a shortlist of five cities under threat of losing out, saying Saransk, Volgograd, Yaroslavl, Kaliningrad and Rostov-on-Don had "several problems" that may kill their bid.
But of those five, only Saransk took part in Monday's seminar, a fact that could help the chances of the city of 300,000 people an hour's flight from Moscow.
It is also the only city of the five where building work has already begun, showing Saransk officials may be more enthusiastic than their colleagues in the other four cities.
The Yubileiny Stadium in Saransk was among six arenas being built for the World Cup that issued progress reports to Russian organizers at the seminar.
The other participants were St. Petersburg, Sochi, Kazan, and proposed arenas for Moscow teams Dynamo and Spartak.
"It was important to hold this seminar now, without awaiting the final list of host cities so that the builders and project managers can take into consideration all the recommendations and demands linked with the tournament," said Russia 2018 organizing committee chief Alexei Sorokin.
Sorokin said the majority of the six stadiums will be operational within two years.
Moscow is guaranteed the final at the iconic Luzhniki Stadium, with proposed new arenas for Dynamo and Spartak hoping to share the capital's World Cup fixtures.
St. Petersburg is likely to be given a semifinal at Zenit's new stadium, which should be completed by 2014.
Two other dead-certs are Sochi, which will use the Fisht Olympic Stadium for the opening ceremony of the 2014 Winter Games as well as World Cup matches; and Kazan, which will have the infrastructure in place by next year, when it hosts the University Games.
Mutko also named Krasnodar and Samara as "cities which will most likely be ready," though he did not mention Nizhny Novgorod, another city that needs a stadium building from scratch.
