MOSCOW - Russian city of Samara chose a local firm to design a sports arena for the 2018 World Cup, local authorities said Friday.

The 28-million-U.S.-Dollar contract includes design work for a huge stadium with various infrastructure items, regional governor Nikolai Merkushin said in a statement.

"Design work is the most important stage of preparation for the 2018 World Cup," Merkushin said, adding the stadium should become "the pride of Samara," both as an architectural object and as a sports facility.

Samara, a city with over one million population in the Middle Volga river, is among 11 cities to host the World Cup in 2018.

The city authorities applied last November for the permission to change a venue of the event due to financial reasons.

Originally, the new stadium with a holding capacity of 45,000 was planned on the confluence of Volga and Samara rivers. Eventually the site proved to be too expensive and technically challenging for Samara, the Soviet reserve capital during World War II.

FIFA gave a green light to the relocation of the stadium in December. According to the new plan, the stadium will be built near the airport with construction work to be started in January 2014, local media reported.