|
Moscow, 28 July 2010 – Vitaly Mutko, Russia’s Minister for Sport, Tourism and Youth, Russian Football Union President, Sergei Fursenko and Alexey Sorokin, CEO of Russia’s Bid Committee for the 2018/2022 FIFA World Cup™, will be presenting the latest status of Russia’s bidding activities for FIFA’s flagship competition at the Annual International Sport Forum “Russia – Country of Sports”.
With the bidding campaign to select the host country for either the 2018 or 2022 FIFA World Cup™ reaching its crucial stage, the Annual International Sport Forum at Moscow’s Luzhniki Olympic complex from 29 July to 1 August provides a high-profile opportunity to present Russia’s bid. Luzhniki Stadium has been put forward to FIFA as the proposed stadium for the opening and final matches should the FIFA World Cup™ be awarded to Russia.
“As the title states, the Annual International Sport forum stands testament to Russia’s status as a country of sports and the enormous capacities we have to host the biggest sporting events in the world”, commented Bid Committee CEO Alexey Sorokin. “We are honored to be present at this prestigious event so that we may demonstrate how our football community is ready to continue Russia’s great and successful tradition as host country of such events.”
The Forum will be attended by the President of the Russian Federation, Dmitry Medvedev, who established the event by a special decree in 2009, with the first edition taking place in October of the same year in Kazan. Kazan, home of current Russian football champions Rubin Kazan and host city of the 2013 Universiade Games, is also among the proposed Host Cities for the FIFA World Cup™. The 2010 edition of the Forum is held in celebration of the 30th anniversary of the 1980 Olympic Games that took place in Moscow.
The Forum’s programme includes a number of open sessions, 10 conferences, congresses, and nine round tables. 21 heads of international sports federations, associations and public institutions, members of the International Olympic Committee as well as senior representatives of national Olympic committees of different countries will be in attendance. The total number of the Forum participants is over 3,000 people.
The Forum comes some two weeks ahead of the visit of a delegation of FIFA experts, who will conduct an on-site inspection in Russia from 16 to 19 August. Currently, representatives of the Bid Committee are present at Soccerex in Singapore to state its case to the Asian Football family on 28 and 29 July. FIFA will designate the host nations for the 2018 and 2022 World Cup tournaments at a special meeting of the Executive Committee on 2 December 2010. |