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St Petersburg flying Russia's football flag

People react after St. Petersburg was announced one of the 13 cities which will host matches at the Euro 2020 tournament to be played across the continent in St. Petersburg, September 19, 2014. REUTERS/Alexander Demianchuk

By Dmitriy Rogovitskiy MOSCOW (Reuters) - St Petersburg lost its right to be called Russia's capital in March 1918 after the Bolsheviks came to power, but Russia’s second city can still lay claim to being the country’s footballing capital. The game was first played there in the 1880s and its long association with football will be celebrated when the city welcomes three major tournaments in the space of four years. After hosting the Confederations Cup and 2018 World Cup in successive years, St Petersburg has been selected as one of 13 cities to stage matches at Euro 2020. "The USSR became the first ever European champions and this was one of the main motivations for us,” said Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko. "It was here in St Petersburg at the end of the 19th century that football started to be played. This is the birthplace of Russian football." Tsar Alexander III was on the throne and Leo Tolstoy had just finished his masterpiece Anna Karenina when the first organised games of football took place in St Petersburg involving teams of expats from England, Scotland and Germany, as well as a handful of Russians. The Nevskaya team, named after the city’s main river, was made up of Englishmen working in a local thread factory. Not to be outdone, Scotsmen from a paper factory created their own Nevka side, which means Little Neva in Russian. The Victoria club was soon to follow, which was made up mostly of German workers in the city and a few Russians. Interest among Russians grew and the locals created their own Sport team. In 1902 all four sides competed in the first St Petersburg football league. NEW STADIUM Zenit St Petersburg was founded in 1925 and it has won the league title four times, and the UEFA Cup in 2008. Zenit’s ground, the 20,000-capacity Petrovsky Stadium on the banks of the Neva, was built in 1925 and has undergone little upgrading. So since 2007, on Krestovsky Island in the west of the city, a 68,000-seat stadium, the Zenit Arena, has been taking shape - slowly. Zenit were originally scheduled to play their first game at the new ground in 2009, but the opening has continually been pushed back while the building costs have risen sharply. It was originally slated to cost 6.7 billion roubles but, according to documents received by UEFA, these costs have now risen to 934 million euros, or 44.5 billion roubles. Only the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, which cost $1.6 billion and Wembley Stadium in London ($1.5 billion) have been more expensive to construct. “There are no problems in St. Petersburg and the work is going according to plan,” Mutko said in a telephone interview with Reuters. “The middle of 2016 is the absolute final date that the stadium must be finished, however we hope it will be sooner." “It will be a unique stadium," said the acting Govenor of St. Petersburg, Georgy Poltavchenko, during a briefing with Russian President Vladimir Putin. "There is no stadium so far north that has a retractable roof and a removable pitch.” Zenit have big plans of their own even without their new stadium. They are Russia’s richest club, helped by vast financial backing from state firm Gazprom, and this season they are looking to become one of the top 10 clubs on the continent. STUMBLING BLOCK A year ago, Mutko had said he thought St. Petersburg’s chances of hosting matches at Euro 2020 were minimal because he did not think UEFA would let Russia have another piece of the cake so soon after hosting the World Cup. Politics could also have proved a stumbling block after Russia's showdown with Ukraine, but UEFA was happy last week to present St Petersburg with the chance of hosting a quarter-final in 2020 plus three group games. These games are likely to be popular. In a poll about St. Petersburg hosting games at Euro 2020, 75 percent of the city’s population were in favour, and Zenit forward Alexander Kerzhakov has now decided to put any thoughts of retirement on hold. "I wanted to finish my career in 2018 after the World Cup on home soil, but no - I am going to finish it in 2020 after Euro 2020 in my favourite city St Petersburg!!!" - the 31-year-old wrote on his Instagram page. (Editing by Robert Woodward)