FIFA kicks off Russia 2018 city tour

FIFA have kicked off their inspection of potential host cities for the 2018 World Cup in Russia. The job of the delegation is whittle down a list of 13 candidates cities to 11 by September. The locations have been grouped into five clusters, and it is the southernmost cluster where FIFA is beginning its tour, in the city of Krasnodar. The delegation also takes in Sochi and Rostov-on-Don over the next three days. In Krasnodar, which hosts two Russian Premier League clubs in FC Kuban and FC Krasnodar, the team is to be whisked around the city's existing football infrastructure. For the World Cup, the city is constructing a 50,000-capacity arena that is to be a new home for FC Kuban after the tournament. In Sochi, the arena that is hosting the opening ceremony for the 2014 Winter Games is to be used as a football stadium for the World Cup. A tour of the construction area will follow an inspection of the airport and the city. The delegation arrives in Rostov, also home to a Premier League side, on Thursday to see the site for a projected 44,000 arena and a new bridge across the River Don. In each city the team will also assess local authority plans on setting up fan zones, open areas with jumbo screens showing World Cup games. A tour of the northwestern cluster of St. Petersburg and Kaliningrad begins April 26.