Contrary to July's declarations about prolonging Transstroi's contract to deliver the stadium, municipality of Saint Petersburg will launch a new tender to deliver the 69,000-capacity stadium.

The “never-ending” construction of Zenit's new home stadium takes a new turn. This time decision was made to change the general contractor, who has been on site since 2006.

On one hand this comes as no surprise, because Transstroi's contract ends in October and seeking a new contractor seems obvious. However, in July Saint Petersburg authorities assured they wouldn't end the deal, because new tender could mean up to a year of delays on a site that was to be delivered in 2008.

It is also no secret that Transstroi and the municipality experienced mutual tensions with the ridiculed project that grew to be among the world's most expensive and longest to finish.

A city spokesperson was quoted to say: “We’re annulling the contract not because we are unsatisfied with the developer’s performance but because due to substantial changes to the projects over the last few years, the city made a decision about holding a new tender.”

New construction tender should be launched in early October and we should see the contractor selected in mid-November. Still, keeping the deadline of 2015 seems improbable with another delay.