The preliminary round draw for the 2018 World Cup in Russia marked both a first and last step on the road to the finals.
While Saturday’s draw was the start of a countdown to the event, the announcement on the same day that FIFA’s executive committee had endorsed Russia as the host nation was designed to end talk of it being stripped of the finals.
The decision by the heads of world soccer’s governing body bore more weight than US and Swiss investigations into how Moscow won the bidding to host the tournament five years ago, officials said.
Even with Western governments concerned about Russia’s role in the conflict in eastern Ukraine and human rights groups alarmed about racism in Russian soccer, it now looks all but impossible that Moscow will not host the World Cup.
“Even if there were any irregularities in the voting, and none have ever been proved or are likely to be, the only body that can take the World Cup away from Russia is FIFA’s executive committee,” a senior FIFA insider said. “I think we can finally put that idea to bed.”
Despite cutbacks in the budget for the month-long tournament taking place in 11 cities across the European part of Russia during June and July, 2018, work is generally advancing rapidly on stadiums, roads, hotels and airports.
FIFA president Sepp Blatter said the executive committee had voted its “trust and confidence” in Russia as the host nation.
Russian President Vladimir Putin seemed to have no doubt Russia would host the event in opening remarks at Saturday’s ceremony in the city of St Petersburg, beamed live to 170 nations.
“We are here to launch a football marathon,” he said. “It is a good chance to visit a multi-faceted and open Russia that can surprise and inspire,” while promising a “special atmosphere of unity and overwhelming joy.”
That atmosphere was not shared by all because of worries about racism after an incident in which Ghana’s Emmanuel Frimpong was subjected to racist chants and sent off over a rude gesture to the crowd during a match earlier this month.
Days after the incident, Brazil international Hulk pulled out of Saturday’s ceremony in the city where he plays for Russian Premier League champions Zenit St Petersburg.
Hulk said it would be “really gross and really ugly” if racism marred the 2018 finals, but Russian Minister of Sports Vitaly Mutko cautioned against letting the incident become a “big scandal” and said it was being talked about too much.
Russian officials want to ensure the build-up to the World Cup finals is not marred by negative publicity in the same way as preparations for last year’s Winter Olympics in the Russian city of Sochi were overshadowed by discussion of gay rights, high spending and allegations of corruption — denied by the Kremlin.
The finals start shortly after Russia is due to hold a presidential election in which Putin is widely expected to run and to win a fourth term — he is likely to do all he can to ensure the preparations go smoothly.
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