World Cup football matches not to be held in NCFD

In 2018, matches of the World Cup will not be held in the cities of the North-Caucasian Federal District (NCFD) for security reasons. At the same time, three cities of the Southern Federal District (SFD) want to receive matches: Rostov-on-Don, Sochi and Volgograd.

As stated by Alexander Khloponin, Russian President's Plenipotentiary in the NCFD, the issue of safety is paramount during the World Cup.

"We cannot state that the issue of safety in the territories has been closed; thus, in order not to give a chance to international community to question the championship - and we have plenty of opponents who wouldn't like Russia to hold the tournament - we won't take risks," the ITAR-TASS quotes Mr Khloponin as saying.

Chechnya was suggested as a venue for World Cup matches by the head of the republic Ramzan Kadyrov. The "Newsru.com" reports that Mr Kadyrov's idea was also rejected by Sergey Fursenko, President of the Russian Football Union.

The matches of the World Cup-2018 will take place in stadiums of 13 cities of Russia: Moscow, St Petersburg, Ekaterinburg, Kaliningrad, Kazan, Krasnodar, Nizhny Novgorod, Rostov-on-Don, Samara, Saransk, Sochi, Volgograd and Yaroslavl.