As the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia™ draws closer, construction on all the tournament's stadiums continues apace. Every month FIFA.com updates fans on how progress is going.

The finishing touches are being applied to the FIFA Confederations Cup venues – Spartak Stadium in Moscow, Fisht Stadium in Sochi, the Kazan Arena and Saint Petersburg Stadium – while work presses on at the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia™ stadiums.

The Luzhniki Stadium is the exception, however, as the new facility is almost ready to be signed off after undergoing major renovation. The markings of the football pitch at Russia 2018’s main arena have already been painted, although at the moment only in the direction the grass has been cut. “The lines with be painted twice before matches, in both directions,” explained the Deputy Mayor of Moscow Marat Khusnullin recently.

The foundations of the football pitch at the Ekaterinburg Arena are nearly fully laid and workers have begun installing the drainage system. The preparatory stage will be finished in July and after that the turf can be seeded. In the meantime, the stands and facilities inside the venue are being fitted out and utility systems are being installed. Work has also begun on upgrading the area surrounding the stadium and is expected to be finished in autumn. One load of gravel for this purpose weighs 80,000 tonnes alone and there will be 5500 square metres of lawn.

Nearly 2000 people have been put to work on the Volgograd Arena construction site, where the railroads and crane towers are ready (in the space that will eventually become the football pitch) to lift the cable-stayed roof and additional elements into place. The stadium’s protective outer enclosure has also started to take shape: a three-metre high latticed metal construction that measures 1.5km in length. The light towers around the stadium continue to be built and so far, five of the 21 planned 30-metre towers have already been erected.

Around 80 per cent of the membrane roof has been laid at the Russia 2018 stadium in Rostov-on-Don. The metal structure of the roof and the concrete work at the construction site are already complete. Inside the facility, the dropped ceilings, lifts and escalators are being built; doors, coloured panels and windows fitted; and ceramic tiles laid. The layers beneath the football pitch are 30 per cent complete. Regional authorities in the Rostov Oblast plan to hold the first matches at the stadium in November this year.

Experts applying finishing touches A landmark moment has been passed in the construction of the Mordovia Arena in Saransk, as the final block of the rounded roof has been mounted. Two hundred construction workers worked around the clock to build the structure, which weighs 6000 tonnes in total. The welding joints alone measure 12,000 metres all together.

Experts have started putting together the football pitch at the Nizhny Novgorod Stadium. The area that will contain the playing surface measures 7140 square metres. To improve the pitch’s sustainability and density, a special geosynthetic fabric will be added to its foundations. The materials that compose the layers beneath the pitch (ballast, top soil, fertiliser etc.) will undergo additional testing in a special laboratory in Scotland.

The pyramid-shaped supports that will hold up the 32 elements of the roof around the outer perimeter of the stands have been completed at the Samara Arena. The concrete is almost all laid, while the interiors of the stadium’s facilities are being finished off.  The external utility systems, entrances and core metal structure are also nearly done. In total, 2300 people and 150 pieces of machinery have been employed on the construction site.

At the Kaliningrad Stadium, decorative work such as plastering and painting walls or laying tiles is ongoing. The internal electricity, ventilation and heating systems are being installed and outside, the stadium’s facade is still being erected. Here too, experts have started building the layers that compose a football pitch.