Two volumes of Russia's 2018 World Cup bid book have been stolen from the country's display stand in South Africa, the head of Russia's bid told a government daily on Tuesday.
Bid books generally contain all technical data on the bid and information on the proposed social and global legacy of the competition. Russia brought two copies of the book, each containing three volumes, to the official presentation in South Africa.
"They were lying on an illuminated stand, and visitors were allowed to touch them and look through. As a result, two volumes were stolen. The introductory volume and the volume devoted to stadiums disappeared. The same thing with the Dutch bid, by the way. Two volumes of the bid book were stolen from them, too," Russian Football Union director general Alexei Sorokin said in an interview with Rossiiskaya Gazeta.
He said that the incident will not harm Russia's bid.
"We have 500 copies of them. Two volumes of one copy were stolen," the official said. "All participants had something missing from their display stands... It's just a laughable incident and nothing more."
Russia is competing with England, Spain and Portugal and Belgium and the Netherlands to host the World Cup in 2018.
After the presentation, FIFA's executive committee is due to pay visits to applicant countries throughout the summer before deciding on the hosts on December 2.
The head of Russia's bid said the presentation, supported by Arsenal star Andrei Arshavin, went smoothly and he was satisfied with the results.
"I think, the Russian and British got most of the attention," he said.
"The British had [David] Beckham, we had [First Deputy Prime Minister Igor] Shuvalov, [tycoon and Chelsea owner Roman] Abramovich and Arshavin. And also top sports officials, namely [sports minister Vitaly] Mutko and [Education Minister Andrei] Fursenko," Sorokin said.
MOSCOW, June 15 (RIA Novosti)
