Russia's western exclave of Kaliningrad is confident sports authorities will not remove it from the list of host cities for the 2018 World Cup.
The slice of land between Poland and Lithuania was on a preliminary list of 13 locations to stage the football extravaganza, but Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko said this week it may be removed due to "problems."
Two cities are set to be axed before the final list of 11 is unveiled September 29, and Mutko said Kaliningrad was under threat along with the mainland cities of Saransk, Volgograd, Rostov and Yaroslavl.
"There are a lot of problem issues, in lots of regions nothing's ready," said Dmitry Chepel, the president of the Kaliningrad Football Federation. "I am sure the decision will be in favor of Kaliningrad," he said.
"Knowing certain nuances, I can say that we will be among the cities that will receive the World Cup."
Mutko did not specify what problems the cities faced, nor whether he had any inside knowledge of the decision-making process, which is to be undertaken by FIFA’s executive committee.
The cities he listed all have their proposed stadiums yet to be built.
Moscow will host the final at Luzhniki Stadium, while St. Petersburg is thought to be guaranteed a semifinal. Other safe bets include Sochi, where the stadium under construction for the opening ceremony of the 2014 Winter Games is set to be used for football later on.
Kazan, the host of next year's University Games, and Yekaterinburg are also unlikely to be axed.
