Two football matches due to be played in Moscow were called off on Friday due to the worsening smog.
The Spartak Moscow-Zenit St. Petersburg game and the Dynamo Moscow-CSKA Moscow fixtures, both scheduled to take place on Sunday, were postponed over “the worsening ecological situation in Moscow,” a Premier League statement said.
Russia’s friendly with Bulgaria on August 11 was also moved on Friday from Moscow to St. Petersburg due to the thick smog in the capital.
Moscow has been hit by smog - smoke from nearby peat bog and forest fires mixed with pollutants - for much of the last 12 days, but Friday saw the worst yet, with health officials warning people to stay inside.
The capital has also been experiencing a heat wave, with temperatures nudging 40 degrees Celsius
“It would not be possible to play in such weather and smog,” a spokesman for Russian Football Union chief Sergei Fursenko said.
Russia’s new coach, Dutch trainer Dick Advocaat, has called up all of his foreign-based players for his first game in charge of the team.
MOSCOW, August 6 (RIA Novosti)
