October 31, 2013. Russia’s Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko confirmed Yekaterinburg’s status as the city that is supposed to host the World Football Championship 2018, R-Sport reports.

‘I am positive that Yekaterinburg is the city that should host the World Cup, even though the stadium is not quite reconstructed yet. This is a great city and a front gate to Asia. We would like the world to see this place, and we are going to promote it,’ Mutko said at the Russia 2018 Coordination Committee meeting where preparation for the Mundial was the main point on the agenda.

Now the list of cities that are expected to host the World Cup matches was announced on September 29, 2012. In addition to Yekaterinburg, the list features Moscow, Kaliningrad, Saint Petersburg, Volgograd, Kazan, Nizhniy Novgorod, Samara, Saransk, Rostov-on-Don, and Sochi. Krasnodar and Yaroslavl applied for this, but were not shortlisted.

‘There is no way Krasnodar can either creep or break into the list of hosting cities: the selection process is over, the championship concept has been decided on. We cannot move the goalposts now, everything is settled,’ says Russia 2018 Director-General Alexei Sorokin.