Power of Russia’s new football love fails as Samara Arena goes dark over unpaid bills

August 29 – Within six weeks of the World Cup finishing, one of the stadiums used at the tournament is already in trouble despite Russian authorities promising that all venues would leave a positive legacy.

Electricity was briefly cut on Tuesday at the Samara Arena over unpaid bills.

Samaraenergo, a power supplier in the city, told Reuters that the supply was cut because PSO Kazan, the company that built the 42,000-seat stadium, had had racked up 9,216,000 rubles ($136,000) in debt.

“We waited for a long time,” said spokeswoman Olga Perkova. “Because PSO Kazan did not resolve the issue of paying its debt, a decision was made to cut electricity.”

The Samara Arena, which hosted six World Cup matches, has since become the home of RPL club Krylia Sovetov Samara and after an internal meeting, Samararaenergo decided to turn the power back on because of the upcoming Russian Premier League matches.

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