SOCHI, Russia -- Nothing is quite as it seems in Sochi. After all, this is the 2014 Winter Olympic city with palm trees on the promenade, where the azure blue Black Sea resembles the Mediterranean on the French Riviera.
It is where the $780 million Fisht Stadium will host Thursday's Confederations Cup semifinal between Germany and Mexico and also four World Cup group games during Russia 2018.
However, beyond the World Cup, Sochi risks becoming a city with some of the most spectacular sporting facilities in the world but nobody to use them.
This is not a football city, yet so much was lavished on Sochi by Vladimir Putin's government in order to stage the 2014 Winter Olympics that it was always going to be invited to the World Cup party.