Sepp Blatter cast doubt on Russia's preparations for the 2018 World Cup last night when he said Fifa will discuss cutting the number of stadiums to be used there.

Two days after sports minister Vitaly Mutko gave details of the 12 stadiums in 11 cities to be used in Russia, the Fifa president suggested the plan could be re-examined.

Blatter, at his final media briefing after Germany's win over Argentina in Sunday's final, said a Fifa delegation will visit Russia in September to discuss the 2018 finals.

"We will have meetings there in September to see if 12 is the right number and even if they could be reduced to 10," he said.

His comments surprised Alexei Sorokin, chief executive of the Russian organisers, who said: "This is the first I have heard about it."

Blatter described the Brazil World Cup as "very, very special", but said he was troubled it cost around £6.4billion to stage: "It's obvious the World Cup has taken such a dimension that the organisation is a hard work for the organising country and also for Fifa," he said.

"Fifa is looking at 2018 now and we are in discussions on what is the ideal number for the organisation and to keep it in such a manner that it's feasible, reasonable and controllable.

"We are not going to be in a situation as is the case of one, two or even three stadiums in South Africa where it is a problem of what you do with these stadiums," Blatter said.

Russia president Vladimir Putin was in Rio for Sunday's World Cup final and met Blatter.

Mutko said on Saturday Russia had allocated £11.7 billion - £5.2billion more than Brazil - to the 2018 tournament.