Sports

Moscow gets Infantinos thumbs up

Moscow gets Infantino’s thumbs up

By Agence France Presse

FIFA President Gianni Infantino, center, shows a thumbs up to the media at the Luzhniki Stadium which is undergoing a major rebuild to be ready for the 2018 World Cup, in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, April 19, 2016. Others are unidentified officials. Gianni Infantino is visiting 2018 World Cup host Russia for the first time since he was elected FIFA president in February. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

Moscow, April 19 FIFA president Gianni Infantino on Tuesday expressed his satisfaction with Moscow’s preparations for the 2018 World Cup during his first visit to Russia. “It is truly impressive, so impressive that I’d like to commend and congratulate already now in advance the (Moscow) mayor,” Infantino told reporters at the Luzhniki Stadium, where construction work was in full swing. “Inside you really feel the atmosphere of football, it’s a football stadium,” he said, adding that the Luzhniki was the “right venue” to host the World Cup final. Russian sports minister Vitaly Mutko, who also serves as the head of the country’s football federation, added that the preparations for the competition were going according to plan. “We’re satisfied with the course of the preparations,” state news agency TASS quoted Mutko as saying at a meeting of the upper house of Russia’s parliament on Tuesday. “Everyone can see what is under construction and where,” he added. “Of course there are problems too.” Mutko added that President Vladimir Putin was personally overseeing the preparations for the World Cup.