Putin opens 2018 World Cup Stadium in Moscow

MOSCOW Russia (Reuters) - Russia's newest completed World Cup stadium, the Otkrytie Arena, in Moscow, was opened by the country's President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday.

Putin opens 2018 World Cup Stadium in Moscow

(Reuters)





The stadium, in the north west of the Russian capital, will be home to the city's famous Spartak club and will host matches at the 2018 World Cup finals.

Putin arrived by helicopter, accompanied by the Russian Minister for Sport, Vitaly Mutko, the mayor of Moscow, Sergey Sobyanin, and Leonid Fedun, the owner of Spartak Moscow, who funded the stadium.

Russia's head of state was given a tour of the arena, which currently holds 42,000. He also met Spartak veterans and youth players.

Before leaving, Putin signed a football, which will be placed in the club's museum.

"This stadium is fit for one of the most loved clubs in Russia," said Putin. "The construction of sporting stadia like this helps to push development within the country."

The stadium took seven years to build and cost about 15 billion roubles (150 million pounds).

The capacity can be increased to 45,000, which football's world governing body FIFA would prefer. The stadium will also host Confederations Cup matches in 2017.

The first game at Spartak's new stadium will be on Sept. 5 when the club will play a friendly against Red Star Belgrade.









(Reporting by Dmitriy Rogovitskiy; editing by Ken Ferris)


Share

2 min read

Published

Updated

Source: Reuters


Share this with family and friends


Get SBS News daily and direct to your Inbox

Sign up now for the latest news from Australia and around the world direct to your inbox.

By subscribing, you agree to SBS’s terms of service and privacy policy including receiving email updates from SBS.

Download our apps
SBS News
SBS Audio
SBS On Demand

Listen to our podcasts
An overview of the day's top stories from SBS News
Interviews and feature reports from SBS News
Your daily ten minute finance and business news wrap with SBS Finance Editor Ricardo Gonçalves.
A daily five minute news wrap for English learners and people with disability
Get the latest with our News podcasts on your favourite podcast apps.

Watch on SBS
SBS World News

SBS World News

Take a global view with Australia's most comprehensive world news service
Watch the latest news videos from Australia and across the world