Moscow Oblast withdraws from Russia’s 2018 World Cup bid

Boris Gromov, governor of Moscow Oblast, said the region won’t take part in Russia’s bid to host the 2018 World Cup. Thus, the arena that was scheduled to be constructed there among the 13 stadiums featuring in the bid won’t take shape.

«We abandoned the idea of ​​building the stadium, and Moscow Oblast withdrew from the Russian bid. I don’t see the point of building such a huge football stadium, as it is not quite clear how we could use it after the World Cup. We offered another option, to renovate and expand the existing stadium in the center of Podolsk, but the organizers did not agree to that,» Gromov said to Sovetsky sport.