Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/827430
maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 24 MAY 2017 20 Sport SPORTTODAY FOOTBALL Putin promises fans World Cup at highest level RUSSIA'S preparations for host- ing the football World Cup next year are on track, Russian Pres- ident Vladimir Putin told the head of world football's govern- ing body, FIFA, on Tuesday. Russia, which has come un- der several rounds of Western sanctions over the annexation of Crimea and Moscow's role in Ukraine's conflict with pro- Russian separatists, will host the FIFA Confederations Cup next month and the World Cup in 2018. Moscow has eased visa regu- lations for foreign football fans and pumped billions of dollars into stadiums, hotels and other infrastructure as the Krem- lin is keen to improve Russia's image in its worst crisis with the West since the Cold War. "As regards preparing for the Confederations Cup and the World Cup, as you know, we pay a great deal of attention to our foreign guests, we will pro- vide them with many places, we are also working with fans and with their associations," Putin told visiting FIFA President Gi- anni Infantino. "We are going to do every- thing in our power to ensure that the facilities, the accom- modation, the condition of sta- diums in Russia, the services that are going to be provided to the athletes, to the fans and to everyone else are at the highest level possible." The two men met in the southern Russian city of Kras- nodar, which boasts one of the nation's most modern sta- diums, belonging to Russian Premier League club FC Kras- nodar. Although Krasnodar will not be a venue for either of the tournaments, Infantino said the local "state-of-the-art in- frastructure" was "a concrete fact proving that Russia would deliver". "Obviously as FIFA president but more importantly also as football fan I really invite the whole world to come to Russia for the Confederations Cup, for the World Cup and to discover an incredible country," Infan- tino said. An interior view shows the Luzhniki Stadium, which will host 2018 FIFA World Cup matches, in Moscow, Russia Spanish police arrest former Barcelona FC president in graft probe FORMER Barcelona football club president Sandro Rosell was arrested on Tuesday as part of an investigation into money laundering, a Spanish police spokesman said. Five people were arrested in total, according to a po- lice statement, which said the probe was centred on au- diovisual rights sales linked to Brazil's national football team. Sporting events organisers were also among those ar- rested after a series of raids on homes in the northern Span- ish region of Catalonia and in neighbouring Andorra, police said. They added that authori- ties were gathering evidence of bribes being paid to peo- ple who illegally arranged the rights sales and that they were also investigating allegations that the profits of the scheme were later laundered. Rosell's lawyers were not available for comment. Rosell resigned as president of Barcelona in 2014 after Spain's High Court began in- vestigating irregularities in the way the club signed Bra- zilian player Neymar. He had denied any wrongdoing in that case, which is set to go to trial. Sandro Rosell London police to review security for events after Manchester attack LONDON'S po- lice force said on Tuesday it would review security arrangements for all public events in the British capital and de- ploy extra armed police at sport- ing events after Monday's suicide bomb attack on a pop concert in Manchester. "Specialist officers from our event planning teams and pro- tective security experts are now reviewing in detail all the plans for upcoming events in the capital," London's Metro- politan Police said in a state- ment. "This includes smaller events which may not have had a po- lice presence seeing a greater focus (and) an increase of armed and unarmed officers on highly visible reassurance patrols around key locations," the police added. Extra armed police would be deployed at this weekend's football at Wembley and rugby at Twickenham, police said.