Putin, FIFA president issued fan IDs in Sochi
SOCHI. May 4 (Interfax) - Russian President Vladimir Putin and FIFA President Gianni Infantino inspected the 2018 FIFA World Cup Fan ID Distribution Center in Sochi on Thursday.
Infantino and Russian Communications and Mass Media Minister Nikolai Nikiforov met Putin at the center in Sochi's Adler District. Nikiforov used an electronic queue management machine to print out queue tickets for Putin and Infantino, who showed them at the registration desks and were given fan IDs.
Putin and Infantino then posed for a group photo with the center's employees.
Nikiforov told Putin about the center's operations. There are 21 such centers and 90 mobile distribution points operating in the 2018 World Cup host cities, he said. The distribution centers now issued 600,000 ID cards. Almost 700,000 people have registered on a special website to get their cards. Russian fans account for 48% of them. The remaining 52% are spectators from more than 120 countries, including the United States, Mexico, China, Colombia, Argentina, Germany, and Brazil.
It is expected that approximately 1.55 million people will attend World Cup games this summer.