MOSCOW -- The Luzhniki Stadium, the venue for next year's World Cup final, is ready ahead of schedule and will stage its first fixture before the end of this year, the head of the Local Organising Committee (LOC) in Moscow has told ESPN FC.
The stadium, which hosted the 2008 Champions League final between Manchester United and Chelsea, closed its doors in 2013 to undergo a $700 million (£550m) reconstruction.
The 81,000-capacity venue is not being used for the Confederations Cup, currently being staged in four cities across Russia.
But Svetlana Bazharova, Moscow's LOC venue manager, said: "The Luzhniki is ready, and ahead of schedule.