Soccer-Russia to drop two cities from 2018 World Cup shortlist

MOSCOW, Sept 11 (Reuters) - Russia will drop two of 13

cities bidding to stage matches for the 2018 World Cup, head of

the local organising committee (LOC) Vitaly Mutko said on

Tuesday.

Saransk, Volgograd, Yaroslavl, Kaliningrad and Rostov are

the most under threat.

"We have completed the formal review of all the candidate

cities," Mutko, who is also Russia's Sports Minster, was quoted

as saying by the ministry press office.

"As of today we still have 15 stadiums located in 13 cities

but we plan to use only 12 venues in 11 cities, therefore our

task is to pick the two cities that must be cut."

LOC plans to announce the host cities on Sept. 29.

Moscow will have two venues: the 90,000-seat Luzhniki

stadium, which will stage the final, and another to be chosen

from two 45,000-seat arenas that are being built by the Spartak

and Dynamo clubs.

"We have divided all 13 cities into three categories.

Moscow, St Petersburg, Kazan, Sochi and Yekaterinburg are in a

group that is best suited to host the matches," Mutko said.

"We have little doubt that two cities, Krasnodar and Samara,

will also be fully prepared. Then we have the last group,

consisting of five cities - Saransk, Volgograd, Yaroslavl,

Kaliningrad and Rostov, that have problems.

"Most likely, two of those five cities will be cut from the

final list," he added.

Russia beat England and joint bids from Spain-Portugal and

Belgium-Netherlands in December 2010 to win the right to stage

the finals