2018 FIFA World Cup concept will not change

Russian Minister for Sports Vitaly Mutko said that the concept of the 2018 FIFA World Cup will not change. The last chance to make any changes was in June 2014, when FIFA President Joseph Blatter and FIFA executives were visiting Russia, TASS reports.

Blatter approved the idea of building stadiums for 35,000 spectators, not 45,000, in Kaliningrad and Yekaterinburg.

The World Cup will be held at 12 stadiums in 11 cities: Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Volgograd, Yekaterinburg, Kazan, Kaliningrad, Nizhny Novgorod, Rostov-on-Don, Samara, Saransk and Sochi. Three stadiums have been built so far: Otkrytaya Arena in Moscow, Kazan-Arena in Kazan and Fisht in Sochi.