MOSCOW: Half-empty stadiums, low TV viewing figures and uninspiring displays by the national team: Russians are struggling to get interested in football with two years to go before they host the World Cup. This month a survey conducted by state-controlled pollsters VTsIOM showed the number of people who said they were indifferent to the beautiful game was at 83 percent. “Unfortunately it’s a fact,” lamented sports minister Vitaly Mutko to the press. “Our people do not attend the matches or even watch football on TV.” A large part of the problem getting people to games in Russia appears to be the dire state of the sport’s infrastructure across the nation. Crumbling stadiums that date back to the Soviet-era where fans are left to face the elements are still common and a big turn-off as clubs battle to boost attendance. “This season the average attendance of the Premier League matches before the winter break was around 11,000 spectators,” Sergei Pryadkin, who heads Russa’s top league, said in an interview published on its official site. But a major part of the preparations for the World Cup in 2018 involves building a string of new stadiums or refurbishing existing ones across the country…