ST PETERSBURG: In a new example of the financial problems assailing the 2018 World Cup organisers, a team of 50 workmen involved in the long-delayed construction of the Zenit-Arena in St Petersburg, have not been paid since last October.

Work began on the Zenit stadium, modelled on Germany’s Schalke stadium, back in the spring of 2009 but progress on a key venue for the 2017 Confederations Cup and the World Cup has been interrupted by one dispute after another.

A report from RIA Novosti has claimed that the workers concerned have been in charge of the installation of electricity and piping and are now owed and the amount of debt was about £160,000.

The latest delivery date for the arena on Krestovsky Island is May 1, 2016.

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