A spat between Russian and English soccer officials over their rival bids for hosting the 2018 World Cup escalated Wednesday, with the Russian Football Union's honorary president denouncing an English complaint as ''absolutely primitive.''
Vyacheslav Koloskov told Russian website championat.ru that a complaint by England's bid team to FIFA about comments by the head of the Russian bid was prompted by ''nervousness.''
English bid officials complained to FIFA after Russian bid chief Alexey Sorokin described London in an interview as a city with high crime rate and high alcohol consumption among its youth.
Sorokin told the daily Sports Express Wednesday that journalists misinterpreted his comments and said he didn't mean to criticize London.
FIFA said in a statement Wednesday that it was studying the complaint by England that Russia broke competition rules by criticizing London.
The final vote on the 2018 host, which includes Belgium-Netherlands and Spain-Portugal, is Dec. 2.
