YEKATERINBURG, December 3 (R-Sport) – One of the stadiums to be used in the 2018 football World Cup in Russia became embroiled in a political row Tuesday after the mayor of Yekaterinburg demanded a dramatic rethink of the arena.
The Yekaterinburg stadium is to be easternmost of the 12 host arenas for the World Cup and has long been at the center of controversy, especially since opposition politician Yevgeny Roizman beat an candidate from the ruling United Russia party in mayoral elections in September.
Roizman told RIA Novosti on Tuesday that he opposed the $380 million plan to renovate the city’s Central Stadium for the World Cup. He said a new arena should be built elsewhere as it would be cheaper.
Roizman said he was preparing an alternative proposal and that he would in the near future submit it to the regional governor, an appointee of President Vladimir Putin.
The mayor spoke after the existing Central Stadium rebuild plan was approved by the governor’s city-planning commission Tuesday morning.
The commission said it had found a way to reconcile the rebuild with the stadium’s historic monument status. The project’s contractor had warned in October that failure to quickly resolve the issue of the stadium’s heritage status could cost Yekaterinburg its role as host city.
The government-backed Russia 2018 organizing committee said in October there was no question of replacing Yekaterinburg as a host city. Those reassurances came shortly after reports that crisis talks on the issue had been held with football’s world governing body FIFA.
