(MENAFN- Arab News) MOSCOW: FIFA President Sepp Blatter will attend the 2018 World Cup qualifying draw in St. Petersburg on July 25 Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko said on Tuesday.
'Of course he (Blatter) will attend (the draw)' Mutko told the TASS news agency.
'The whole of the (FIFA) executive committee will be there as well as all 209 national federations. Preparations are going as planned' the minister added.
The Russian Football Union (RFS) also said Blatter would attend the draw.
'As a person who knows a few things about Blatter I am in no doubt that he will attend the draw' RFS general secretary Anatoly Vorobyov told Reuters in a telephone interview.
'Blatter has come to Russia 23 years in a row to attend the Commonwealth Cup. However now there is a very important event in the sporting and social-political calendar. Of course the president of FIFA should attend these events.
'I am sure that if nothing unexpected happens Blatter will visit St. Petersburg on 25th July' Vorobyov added.
The Commonwealth Cup began in 1993 as a tournament for the champions of the former Soviet Union republics.
Blatter 79 said on June 2 he would step down from his post after US and Swiss authorities widened their investigations into bribery and corruption at world soccer's governing body.
Blatter has not been charged with any wrongdoing.
Swiss authorities are also investigating the awarding of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russia and Qatar respectively.

Garcia report of little help

Swiss authorities investigating whether there was corruption in the awarding of World Cup hosting rights to Russia and Qatar are finding that a report produced by US lawyer Michael Garcia at the end of an internal FIFA inquiry is of little value to their probe according to a source close to investigations into the soccer governing body.
Swiss officials question whether Garcia's report which has not been made public has significant evidentiary value said the source who spoke to Reuters on the condition of anonymity. That is because Garcia who was hired by FIFA had no subpoena power did not take sworn testimony and was operating under FIFA's own ethical rules which had little enforcement power behind them the source added.
Switzerland's Attorney General Michael Lauber told reporters last week that the FBI which has been conducting its own wide-ranging probe into corruption in FIFA and its affiliates has not asked him or his office for a copy of the Garcia report and he hadn't provided the US authorities with one. A US law enforcement official told Reuters earlier this month that the FBI did not have a copy of Garcia's report.
Garcia a former top US government prosecutor was brought in by FIFA in 2012 to run its ethics committee's investigations including examining allegations of corruption.
The report submitted to FIFA last September has been a mysterious part of the growing scandal because FIFA not only declined to publish it but instead released a summary by FIFA ethics judge Hans-Joachim Eckert that prompted Garcia to quit in protest in December. Eckert concluded that any impairment of integrity in the bidding process was only of 'very limited scope' and it was far from reaching any threshold that would require reopening the bidding process for the two World Cups.
Garcia said at the time that the summary contained misrepresentations and that he had lost confidence in the independence of Eckert. He also criticized the 'lack of leadership' in FIFA and said he couldn't change the organization's culture.
Garcia was not available for comment and is declining media interviews about FIFA a spokeswoman for Garcia's law firm Kirkland & Ellis said on Tuesday.
Spokespeople for US prosecutors and for the FBI declined to comment on Tuesday.