Saturday 1 July 2017 21:44, UK
Next summer's World Cup in Russia must attract more supporters from foreign countries, according to the chief executive of the tournament's organising committee.
Alexey Sorokin has praised the nation's hosting of the Confederations Cup but has conceded the number of football fans from outside Russia has been lower than expected.
"We expected a little more spectators from foreign countries," Sorokin told Sky Sports News HQ, in a wide-ranging interview on the eve of the Confederations Cup final.
"This is something we cannot influence. Of course we would like to see more people coming from abroad to support their teams. The level of support from Russian fans towards foreign teams is quite satisfying. We believe it has been a very successful tournament."
Sorokin was asked if he thought Russia suffered from an "image problem".
"It's hard for me to know," he said. "We certainly would like to see more people coming from abroad. In a sense the level at which this tournament was organised dispelled many fears and stereotypes about how major events were organised and foreign fans are treated.
"We have not seen a single incident. Many people didn't expect it to be this way; such great food, interesting museums, such history. People would like to come back, that's a fact."
There have been no reported incidents of racism or hooliganism during the Confederations Cup, allaying pre-tournament fears of crowd trouble.
"There has not been a single racist incident," he said. "The whole 60,000-stadium in St Petersburg chanting 'Cameroon, Cameroon' provides a very good response to any allegations which have been heard in the past.
"This cannot be orchestrated, we cannot persuade 60,000 people to cheer for Cameroon. In general, not a single incident is the best proof itself."
"We have said before, and we maintain, that this problem [hooliganism] has been significantly overblown in some foreign media. We do not see it as a systemic issue.
"Of course, occurrences happen, they happen everywhere, that's football. But in general we do not see that as a major threat towards Russian football. The hospitality towards our foreign friends is just amazing."
Sorokin says he remains unaware of the owner of "destroyed" computers following Russia's successful bid to host next summer's World Cup.
Michael Garcia's corruption investigation, published in full earlier this week, confirmed "no copies of bidding phase communication remained in their possession".
It revealed that leased bidding computers were owned by the Konoplyov Football Academy, which had been taken over by Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich's academy.
There is no suggestion Abramovich authorised their destruction and he is no longer associated with the Konoplyov Football Academy.
Russia 2018 was cleared of any wrongdoing but the report stated the bid had "only made a limited amount of documents available for review" after the computers were "considered obsolete".
"That's very strange if it looks suspicious," Sorokin said. "If I remember it correctly, we rented [them] from an academy in Samara. At the time, yes perhaps it [Konoplyov Football Academy] was linked to him [Abramovich].
"But after that it changed, straight after that it changed, the owner, it now belongs to the region. I'm not sure at the time of the equipment return who the actual owner is; Roman Abramovich structures or the regional structures, I'm not sure.
"We always said, and keep saying, if you have a one-year job you don't buy equipment, you rent it. Not only computers but many other types of equipment were rented and returned. We do not follow the destiny of each piece of equipment."
Sorokin also responded to claims that the entire 2014 Russia World Cup squad is under FIFA investigation for alleged anti-doping violations.
"What we would like to speak about is facts," he said. "The fact is our team, our football players who play in Russian clubs, are tested constantly at every event that they take part in.
"At the World Cup in Brazil, the Euros in France, at games in the UEFA system, they are constantly tested and administered outside of Russia. There hasn't been a single positive result, that's a fact."
