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This week, the president of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) Aleksandrs Čeferins visited Latvia, talking with officials about the construction of the national stadium in Riga.
During two days, Čeferins met with the mayor of Liepāja, Gunārs Ansiņas, the minister of education and science, Anita Muižniec, visited Lucavsala, inspecting the potential construction site of the stadium, and signed a protocol of intent on the implementation of the project with the mayor of Riga, Mārtiņas Staķi. The meeting with Prime Minister Krišjāni Kariņa fell apart, instead it was offered to meet with the right-hand man of Finance Minister Jānis Reira, who is also a member of the National Sports Council, but Čeferins rejected the proposal. There was a telephone conversation with Karina.
For now, the construction project of the stadium is still quite nebulous. First of all, it is expected that the Riga City Council will allocate the land, two places in Lucavsala are primarily being considered, but Uzvaras Park is also on the horizon. The Latvian Football Federation (LFF) wants to build a stadium with 13,000 spectator seats, believing that it could fit into 25 million euros. Such costs were four months ago, and it is understandable that the final amount will be much higher in this time of inflation. Seven years ago, a stadium with less than six thousand seats was planned on Krišjāņa Barona Street, and it failed to be realized precisely because the initially projected costs grew almost twice as much.
At the moment, there is no vision yet when real works could begin. “We agreed to create a working group with the involvement of UEFA, we will start advancing the project as soon as possible. The main thing is for the coalition of the Riga City Council to agree on a specific place, then we will talk with the state sector to get a clear vision on financing,” said LFF president Vadims Lashenko.
Alexander Ceferin stated that UEFA is ready to cover 30 to 40 percent of the construction costs. The International Association of Football Federations (FIFA) would also give a part, but at least ten million would be needed from the country. Čeferin admitted to journalists that he had seen LFF’s plans, but could not or did not want to say anything concrete about them. “What we control is that the money intended for infrastructure goes to it,” he emphasized.
The question is whether this was a good moment for the UEFA president’s visit, considering next week’s Saeima elections. He stated that he did not know about them, but if necessary, he is ready to come again after the formation of the new government.
Aleksandr Ceferin confirmed that not allowing the Russian national team into the European Championship qualifying tournament draw means that the aggressors will not be able to participate in the final tournament. The leader of the organization did not want to express his personal opinion about their Belarusian supporters, who are not disqualified.
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