KEIR RADNEDGE REPORTING —- The World Cup has become further entangled in the political row over the poisoned spy while organisers in Russia have been ticking off the initial test for another of the 12 stadia hosting the finals in June and July.

Diplomatic games around the World Cup were ramped up by Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova. In an interview with the Channel Five television channel she accused the United Kingdom and United States of targeting the tournament.

Zakharova said: “It’s my impression that all they care about is taking the World Cup away from Russia. They will prepared to use any excuse. Their minds are set only on the football event and God forbid it should be staged on a Russian football pitch. It’s absurd.”

Maria Zakharova . . . talking World Cup issues as Yekaterinburg opens for business

More than 100 embassy staff in both Russia and the west have been ordered home in tit-for-tat exchanges since former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poised by a nerve agent in the southern English city of Salisbury on March 4.

UK Prime Minister Theresa May has blamed the attack on the Russian government which has denied any involvement; Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has accused May of trying to distract attention from Brexit problems

Royal absence

One British MP has demanded that the World Cup be moved or postponed but, while UK Ministers and royal family members will stay away, there is no expectation that the England team will not go to Russia.

England have been drawn in Group G with Tunisia, Panama and Belgium whom they will play, respectively, in Volgograd, Nizhny Novgorod and Kaliningrad.

Meanwhile the weekend also saw the redeveloped stadium in Yekaterinburg, the only World Cup venue in Asian (eastern) Russia, stage its first official test when local club Ural drew 1-1 with Rubin Kazan in a Russian league match. Attendance was 18,000 but the World Cup will see temporary stands lift capacity to 35,000.

Vitaly Mutko, Deputy Prime Minister and former Sports Minister, expressed cautious satisfaction with the test.

He said: “In general, there were no serious questions about organisation, access and evacuation, but there are still details needing attention – such as refreshment stands, for example – and the need for two more test matches with more fans.”

Further league match tests will see Ural play Spartak Moscow on April 15 and Amkar Perm on May 6, five weeks before the World Cup kicks off.

Mutko, despite earlier reports of a change of role, is still being described by the official TASS news agency as chairman of the national coordination council for the preparation and staging of the World Cup.

Alexei Sorokin, the local organising committee’s general director, thought “everything went well” and his and Mutko’s comments were echoed by league security director Alexander Meitin.

Yekaterinburg will stage four matches in the finals: Egypt v Uruguay (June 15), France v Peru (June 21), Japan v Senegal (June 24) and Mexico v Sweden (June 27).

Fraud charges

** A Moscow judge has confimed criminal charges against Russian billionaire Ziyavudin Magomedov, co-owner of a company involved in construction of the Kaliningrad World Cup stadium.

Magomedov, co-owner of the Summa investment group and reportedly worth $1.25bn, his brother Magomed Magomedov and business associate Artur Maksidov all deny charges of embezzling $35m in state funds. Maksidov heads the Summa subsidiary responsible for building the Kaliningrad stadium which has yet to be completed.

Two years ago Marat Oganesyan, who was involved in the construction of the Krestovsky Island Stadium in St Petersburg, admitted similar charges of stadium fund embezzlement. Oganesyan, a former Deputy Governor of St Petersburg, has negotiated a plea bargain deal but has yet to be sentenced.

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