2018 Host Cities

This has been going on for an hour and a half now and already war is breaking out over choices, well, one choice anyway.

Rostov, St. Petes, Samara, Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod, Kaliningrad, Ekaterinburg and Sochi have been announced.

Sochi is contentious as it will leave no football legacy, is an ego trip and will mean a genuine football city will lose out. Most likely now to be Saransk and Krasnodar.

Moscow will certainly be there, Volgograd could be shaky, but since this is the hero city of Stalingrad under a new name, it won't!

Yip, Volgograd are city number 9. With Moscow to be one of the last two, lots of people are sweating and the wrong choice could mean the death knell for at least 1 Premier club!

Sweet holy momma, Saransk were chosen, Saransk, in Mordovia, where nothing happens except prisoners come and go to work camps. And some fine beer is brewed. Saransk!

Yaroslavl and Krasnodar to miss out as Moscow will take up one spot. Oh well, going to be fun.

Just checked out Saransk... wow. Just wow. Gonna be a shocking world cup by all accounts. I best make it to Brazil 2014 cos I ain't going to Russia for this.

I have friends in Kaliningrad and Volgograd so I'll start and finish in those and try to get 2 or 3 others in between, maybe Kazan, Rostov, Nizhniy, or Samara

As an Eastern Front aficionado, I don't suppose there's any football ground in Kursk which might host a game? Just back from Volgograd and saw ground there (as well as the mass German grave). Kalingrad would be very interesting, seeing as it was once Konigsberg, the capital of Prussia. Tough to get to though I'd say.

If we qualify, for those who haven't been there, a visa will be required. The embassy will have fun dealing with 10,000 applications.

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Originally Posted by OwlsFan

As an Eastern Front aficionado, I don't suppose there's any football ground in Kursk which might host a game? Just back from Volgograd and saw ground there (as well as the mass German grave). Kalingrad would be very interesting, seeing as it was once Konigsberg, the capital of Prussia. Tough to get to though I'd say.

If we qualify, for those who haven't been there, a visa will be required. The embassy will have fun dealing with 10,000 applications.

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They might do what Ukraine did for the Euros and that your match ticket acted as your visa.

Would make sense but I doubt if the Russians would be so accommodating.

Empty stadia in the East ahoy so.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by OwlsFan

As an Eastern Front aficionado, I don't suppose there's any football ground in Kursk which might host a game? Just back from Volgograd and saw ground there (as well as the mass German grave). Kalingrad would be very interesting, seeing as it was once Konigsberg, the capital of Prussia. Tough to get to though I'd say.

If we qualify, for those who haven't been there, a visa will be required. The embassy will have fun dealing with 10,000 applications.

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When the bid was made Putin said the visa rules would be the same as for the CL final in 2008, so probably a match ticket will give you a free visa for 72 hours