A FIFA delegation on Monday completed a "constructive" tour of the Russian city of Yekaterinburg, which is bidding to be a host venue for the 2018 World Cup, the head of the organizing committee said.
On a two-month tour of Western Russia, the job of the delegation is whittle down a list of 13 candidates cities to 11 by September.
Yekaterinburg is the fifth city to have been inspected after the team visited Krasnodar, Rostov-on-Don, St. Petersburg and Kaliningrad.
The delegation, led by FIFA's head of department for the 2014, 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups Jurgen Muller, has heard presentations by city officials trying to provide convincing reasons as to why theirs should remain on the list.
"We are satisfied with the quality of the discussion," Alexei Sorokin said after the Yekaterinburg stop. "As ever, the conversation is very constructive, we have an exchange of opinions, and clarifications from FIFA."
Yekaterinburg, about 1,600 kilometers from Moscow, is the easternmost city of the 13 on the list.
It plans to hold World Cup matches in the Central Stadium, which successfully hosted this month's Russian Cup final between Rubin Kazan and Dynamo Moscow.
The arena, which currently holds 27,000 spectators, will need significant expansion if it is to meet FIFA's minimum World Cup capacity of 40,000.
The next stops on the tour is Yaroslavl, which held the 2011 Russian Cup final at the stadium at the home arena of local team Shinnik.
Shinnik play FC Rostov later this month for a place in the Russian Premier League next season.
