The Russian national team will play in the group stage of the 2018 FIFA World Cup with Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Uruguay. Russia will become the hostess of such a tournament for the first time. 32 teams will participate in the championship. They will be divided into eight groups of four teams each. In the stage of the playoffs will go to the two best teams from the group.

Matches of the tournament will be played from June 14 to July 15 at 12 stadiums in 11 cities - Moscow, St. Petersburg, Sochi, Kazan, Samara, Saransk, Kaliningrad, Nizhny Novgorod, Yekaterinburg, Volgograd and Rostov-on-Don. Five arenas are ready. Two arenas were introduced in 2013 - in Kazan for the Summer Universiade-2013 and in Sochi for the 2014 Winter Olympics. Recently, the reconstruction of Luzhniki in Moscow, where the opening match and the final will be played, was completed. The remaining nine stadiums had to be built. But only two of them are ready - "The Opening of the Arena" in Moscow and "St. Petersburg". Seven stadiums were supposed to be delivered this December, but a year ago this period was extended until March 2018. At the same time, the arena in Samara risks being not built by the beginning of the tournament, and the authorities failed to meet the approved construction budget.

In the estimate did not fit

The federal budget expenditures for the preparation for the World Cup will not exceed 335 billion rubles, promised in June 2015 the first deputy prime minister Igor Shuvalov. This figure was called back in 2010, when Russia won the right to host the tournament. But I still could not keep up with the estimate. Expenditures of the federal budget increased by 16% to 390 billion rubles. The whole program of preparation for the championship, taking into account private and regional investments, grew by 7.4% (47 billion rubles) to 678 billion rubles. What kind of objects have risen in price, the representative of the Ministry of Transport has not informed.

Perhaps, the authorities will have to adjust the cost of preparing for the World Cup again. Examination of the design estimates of the seven stadiums under construction is still incomplete, several sources close to the organizers of the championship told Vedomosti. And this means that according to its results, the cost of arenas may change, they add. For example, on the recommendation of FIFA, Stroytransgaz increased the number of security equipment at the stadiums, the press secretary of the company Evgenia Novosad specified (the company builds stadiums in Volgograd and Nizhny Novgorod).

The design documentation for the construction of stadiums before commissioning was sent to the FAA Glavgosexpertiza of Russia to take into account the changes introduced, the representative of the Ministry of Transport confirmed. This is confirmed by the representatives of Stroytransgaz and Sinara-Development (Yekaterinburg). The representative of Glavgosexpertiza did not answer Vedomosti's request.

Samara in the risk group

The most problematic stadium is in Samara. At the beginning of the year, Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Mutko called him the only "lagging" stadium, but he expected the construction to return to the schedule in 1.5 months. But in October, the Minister of Sports Pavel Kolobkov estimated the degree of readiness of the facility in 65%, then the general contractor - JI "Kazan" - was almost fined for the failure of the construction deadlines. One of the indirect reasons for the dismissal of the Samara governor Nikolay Merkushkin was also the failure of the timing of the construction of the stadium "Samara Arena", several federal officials told Vedomosti.

PSO "Kazan" Ravil Ziganshin - one of the largest builders of the Volga region. The company was the main general contractor for the construction of sports facilities at the World Summer Universiade in Kazan in 2013.

State Duma deputy from the Samara region Alexander Khinshtein said that the "Kazan" ran out of money, because the project (which the city government developed) exceeded federal funding by 4-5 billion rubles. due to the inclusion of excess areas in it. According to the deputy, 42% of the area in the stadium - commercial. It turns out that "at the expense of the federal budget, the regional authorities decided to build a shopping center," said Khinshtein. The representative of the PCO "Kazan" did not comment on this.

 The cost of the Samara stadium grew several times: first it was determined at 13 billion rubles, then - 16 billion, in 2015 - 17.6 billion. In May 2016 the company announced the suspension of construction, demanding to increase the budget: the scope of work exceed the declared in the contract, and the estimate for the stadium is greatly understated.

Regional authorities also explained the delay in the complexity of the facility. "The stadium in Samara is built on a unique project and has a complicated dome design," said Alexander Fetisov, vice-governor of the Samara region. - It took more time to install it than originally planned. The contractor attracted additional forces - both human resources and equipment. But in the end, the most valuable resource - time was lost. "

Minsport has built an exotic construction system: stadiums project regions, and build and pay federal authorities, this is the main problem, says a person close to the government. As a result, it turned out that the stadium in Samara in terms of building area and height is almost like "Luzhniki", but its capacity is half that - 45,000 seats against 81,000.

"Kazan" completes the basic construction and installation works and eliminates comments issued by Rostekhnadzor during the planned inspections, said the representative of the Ministry of Sport. "In general, the situation with the implementation of construction and installation works is satisfactory. The variant with the transfer of the 2018 World Cup from Samara to another city is not considered by the organizing committee "Russia-2018" and FIFA, "the press service of the organizing committee" Russia-2018 "reported. The press service of the Samara region government and representatives of Mutko did not answer Vedomosti's questions.

Stadium on the swamp

The stadium in Kaliningrad is built on a wetland site on the October Island - in the alignment of the rivers Staraya and Novaya Pregola. The territory next to the stadium will be a new microdistrict in the center of Kaliningrad, Kaliningrad region governor Anton Alikhanov told Vedomosti: "The location allows construction work without interference in the usual urban way of life."

However, in 2012, the chairman of the district council of deputies of Kaliningrad, Alexander Pyatikop, said that the island is not suitable for construction, since it will take "crazy money" to strengthen the soil. And so it happened. To strengthen the soil, the contractor of the facility - Crocus Group, Aras Agalarov had to spend more than 1 billion rubles. Some of this money the company plans to return on the results of the examination, says a person close to the company. According to him, the company had to hammer hundreds of kilometers of piles, and raise the building itself above the ground level by 1.7 m. At the same time, the land near by is still swamped, the interlocutor of Vedomosti continues. Kaliningrad authorities are responsible for their arrangement. Measures to drain the territory have been fulfilled by 85% - the remaining work is planned to be completed in three weeks, Alikhanov said.

In 2014 the investigative committee of the Kaliningrad region initiated a criminal case on the theft of more than 500 million rubles. when building a stadium. And in July of this year, the former Minister of Construction of the region Amir Kushkhov, local deputy head of construction supervision Sergey Tribunsky and top manager of GlobalElectroservice Khachim Eristov were arrested in the case. According to information from the database of the courts of Moscow, they are all charged under part 4 of Art. 159 of the Criminal Code (fraud in a particularly large amount). They face up to 10 years in prison.

How to get to football

According to the FIFA, 2.58 million tickets will go on sale. They are divided into four categories, depending on the location of the place on the rostrum. One of the categories is made only for residents of Russia. These tickets will be the cheapest. For group matches (excluding opening), they will cost 1280 rubles., Playoffs and for 3rd place - 2240-4480 rubles., Final - 7040 rubles. But these will be the most uncomfortable places - behind the gates on the upper tiers of the stands.

Tickets to the central stands, to the angular sectors and to the stands outside the gates (including on the upper tiers) can be purchased by both Russians and foreigners. For group matches, they will cost 6300-12800 rubles, playoffs and third place - 6900-45 000 rubles, the final - 27 300-66 000 rubles.

While tickets are sold only on the FIFA website. Two stages - a draw by random draw, as well as the order of filing and payment of applications - have already passed. 742,760 tickets were sold. The majority - 53% - went to fans from Russia. On December 5, another draw will be started by random draw. Applications will be collected by 31 January. From March 13 to April 3 tickets will be sold in the order of the general line. And finally, from April 18 to July 15 tickets can be purchased "live" in the ticket offices of FIFA in Russia.

There are also package deals worth $ 1.4-2.8 million. In the Big Three package, you will see 19 matches in the box, including the opening match, both semifinals and the final at the Luzhniki Stadium, Spartak Stadium and St. Petersburg Stadium. But most of them have already been sold.

In addition to the ticket for attending matches, you will have to issue a fan's passport (Fan ID). It is issued once (in case of loss is issued free of charge) for the entire period of the tournament. For the foreign spectator, the passport of the fan gives the right to visa-free visits to Russia. The presence of a ticket for the match and the fan's passport allows domestic and foreign viewers to travel for free between the cities where the tournament matches are held, on special additional trains, and on the day of the match free use of public transport at the venue of the game. Free routes inside the city will be laid between the airport and the stadium, between the airport and the fan zone (usually located in the city center), the train station and the stadium.

For communication between the cities participating in the mundial, more than 500 additional trains will be used, the places in which will be provided exclusively for the spectators of the World Cup. Spectators can move between cities for free on additional trains only, on other trains there is no such possibility. In October, Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov reported that 576 additional trains for more than 330,000 seats are scheduled for the transportation of spectators and accredited media during the mundial.

In the draft law on the federal budget for next year will be reserved about 3 billion rubles. to compensate for the cost of free passage of the audience mundialya, said the minister. Marina Zabalueva, the head of the ANO "Transport Directorate - 2018" department, promised that the full schedule of additional trains will be published on December 15. According to Zabalueva, 500 additional free routes will be organized inside the cities - organizers of the mundialya.

"GlobalElectroservice" is a subsidiary of the "Summa" group of the Magomedov brothers. This company was preparing a site for stadium construction - in 2013 it received a contract worth 752 million rubles. Agalarov declared to RBC that he can not begin construction of the related infrastructure (cash registers, inspection points, parking lots, etc.) around the stadium, as well as the field itself due to poor quality of the ground. According to him, the authorities of the Kaliningrad region poorly prepared the site - they filled it with a 6-3 m layer of sand, and with loam 3-3.5 m thick. He pointed out that according to the terms of the contract on engineering preparation of the construction site, the contractor "GlobalElectroservice" had to fill in 1 , 5 million cubic meters. m of sand, install high-tech drainage and conduct temporary roads.

The representative of "GlobalElectroservice" rejects these claims. According to him, the project was completed three years ago. "In the transfer of the construction site claims from the customer to the quality and volume of sand was not, - said the interlocutor of" Vedomosti ". "In addition, the company confirmed the quality of the work performed in the Arbitration Court of the Kaliningrad Region and the Thirteenth Appeals Court of St. Petersburg, where a judicial construction and technical examination was conducted."

According to Alikhanov, the readiness of the stadium exceeds 90%. The stadium in Kaliningrad is almost completed, in December it will be put into operation, confirms and a person close to the "Crocus Group". The representative of the company did not answer Vedomosti's questions.

Cormorants of St. Petersburg

But the longest and most expensive project was the construction of the stadium "St. Petersburg", accompanied by numerous scandals. Its construction began in 2007, then the stadium was planned to be built in three years and 6.9 billion rubles. As a result, it took three times more time and almost six times more money (about 43 billion rubles.). At the same time, the first games at the stadium caused a scandal: the lawn on the field was ugly quality and soon it had to be repaired.

During this time, contractors have repeatedly changed. Since 2013, the administration of St. Petersburg was at war with the general contractor "Inzhtransstroy" Oleg Deripaska. It was not easy to break the contract with the company: Deripaska's structures desperately sued and stayed at the facility until 2016. The stadium's readiness for that time was 85%. Finished construction site already appointed by the administration of St. Petersburg controlled by the city "Metrostroy".

 Former vice-mayor of St. Petersburg, Marat Hovhannisyan, who is in charge of the construction in 2015-2016, is accused of fraud in the construction of the stadium. He became a figurant of two criminal cases. One by one he passes as accused of embezzling an advance of 50 million rubles. at delivery of the scoreboard for the stadium. In this case, Hovhannisyan concluded a pre-trial agreement with the investigation and pleaded guilty. He also figures in the criminal case of corruption. According to the investigation, Oganesyan received a bribe of 20 million rubles. for the transfer of state contract for the performance of works on artistic illumination and outdoor lighting of the stadium company "Stroyelektromontazh No. 5".

The stadium on the Krestovsky Island is the only sports facility in Russia equipped with a sliding roof and a rolling-out field. But a year ago, FIFA experts discovered the vibration of the lawn and demanded that it be eliminated. Field fixed, installed about 300 tons of beams and 700 jacks. And on the field for storing the field outside the stadium was built a temporary media center for football journalists. Now the authorities of St. Petersburg want to move the media center to still roll out the field. Only the transfer of the media center will cost 400 million rubles.

 There are problems with the sliding roof. She hardly moves apart and shifts, says Boris Vishnevsky, a deputy of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg. And on July 22, during the game of "Zenith" with the Kazan "Ruby", the roof of the stadium flowed. Blame cormorants, they destroy the integrity of the reflective film on the roof of the stadium "Krestovsky", explained the vice-governor of St. Petersburg, Igor Albin, the newspaper "Sports Day by Day."

Construction at any cost

With the exception of Samara, the rest of the stadiums fit into the timeline, notes the man close to the organizers of the championship. The general director of the company "Sinara Development" (building a stadium in Yekaterinburg) Timur Ufimtsev says that the readiness of the stadium is 98%, it will be commissioned by the state commission in December 2017.
Against the background of other megaprojects, the preparation program for the championship looks excellent: usually during construction, exceeding the estimate to 15% is considered within the norm, says Colliers International's general director in Russia Nikolai Kazansky. For example, the APEC summit in Vladivostok in 2012 cost 679 billion rubles. with an initial estimate of 149 billion rubles. And the Olympics in Sochi spent a record 1.5 trillion rubles. against declared at the start of 320 billion rubles. "Obviously, state structures have learned to plan and control the construction process. In addition, in such large-scale projects as the Olympics, it is more difficult to calculate the expenses, "Kazansky said.