The trip will see the delegation visiting stadiums in St. Petersburg, Kazan, Sochi and Moscow, in addition to going over the projects and plans in place for the construction of the remaining venues.

The joint delegation includes 40 experts from FIFA, Russia 2018 and Arena-2018, the body tasked with monitoring and tracking the design and construction of the stadiums for the tournament, in the areas of preparing and operating competitions, security, transport, logistics, hospitality services, broadcasting, media operations, medical control, staff performance, and marketing and ticketing programs.

Alexey Sorokin, chief executive of Russia, claims the joint inspection is a "crucial milestone" ©Getty Images




"Running the first joint inspection of the 2018 FIFA World Cup stadiums is a crucial milestone marking the transition from the design phase to operational stage of preparations for the tournament," noted Alexey Sorokin, chief executive of Russia 2018.

"The primary goal for inspection at this stage is to receive first-hand information on how design and construction is going for the 2018 FIFA World Cup stadiums.

"That will enable FIFA, the LOC and Arena-2018 experts to report back to representatives of the host cities with their own comments on how to optimise the work going on so as to meet all FIFA requirements."

St. Petersburg, Kazan, Sochi and the two venues in Moscow, the Spartak Stadium and the Luzhniki Stadium, will be inspected from tomorrow to October 20, while virtual inspections of the remaining stadiums are due to take place from October 21 to 23.