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Russian football chief asks: where are the stadium roofs?
MOSCOW, May 28, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – The head of Russia’s Premier League is
not particularly happy with all the new stadiums the hosts have built for the
World Cup.
Russia spared little expense in either completely revamping or building
from scratch 12 football-specific stadiums for the June 14-July 15 showpiece.
Yet only the one in Saint Peterburg has a retractable roof.
All the others are open to the elements and Premier League chief Sergei
Pryadkin is not pleased.
“When we were holding test matches in the new stadiums, I kept asking
myself: why didn’t they put roofs on them? This is a question for those who
were designing them,” Pryadkin told a press conference.
Pryadkin’s comments mark the most explicit public criticism of of Russia’s
preparations for its first World Cup to date.
Russian football has suffered for generations from horrible pitches that
are either covered in snow during winter or resembling sandpits in the spring
and fall.
The northern climate prompted the Soviet Union and then Russia to build
indoor arenas with synthetic grass in many of the cities where football is
professionally played.
But these are now used solely for training because the Premier League —
looking to adopt international standards — only allows games on real grass.
Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Mutko last week suggested lifting the indoor
arena ban.
“Why did we build them then?” Mutko asked.
The authorities have tried to get around the problem by shutting down the
season for nearly three months in the winter to let all the snow melt.
Yet players complain that this fails to address the issue of pitches not
having suitable grass in other times of the year.
Russia is believed to have spent at least $4 billion (3.4 billion euros)
on stadium construction and refurbishment for the World Cup.
The gleaming arenas will then be handed to over to the cities’ local
football teams in the hopes of reviving attendance and the quality of
domestic league play.
But the government admitted in April that it will have to spend around
$200 million on keeping stadiums open in seven of the smaller host cities for
the first three to five years.
Pryadkin sounded disgruntled with the way the World Cup’s football legacy
was shaping up.
“It is good that we now have good arenas, even though they have no roofs,”
he said.
“When they were building the stadiums, no one asked for our advice.”
BSS/AFP/FI/1838 hrs