MOSCOW, Sept 5: The host cities for the 2018 World Cup in Russia will be announced this month, the tournament’s organisers said on Wednesday.

“The Local Organising Committee (LOC) and FIFA will announce the host cities on Sept. 29 in Moscow,” LOC said in a statement.

Thirteen Russian cities — Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kaliningrad, Yaroslavl, Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan, Samara, Saransk, Volgograd, Krasnodar, Rostov, Sochi and Yekaterinburg — are competing for the right to stage the world’s biggest event.

LOC head Vitaly Mutko said last year the tournament will be played in 12 stadiums located in 11 cities.

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.—Reuters