The Russian government won’t spend any extra money from the federal budget on 2018 World Cup preparations it is obliged to in accordance with the agreement with football’s governing body, FIFA.
The regions have requested 540 billion roubles (around $18
billion) from the federal government to get ready to stage the big
event in five years’ time.
That sum turned out to be lower than earlier estimates by the
Sports Ministry of from 1.4 trillion to 622 billion roubles, but
First Deputy Prime Minister, Igor Shuvalov, still called the
demands overblown.
The government discussed the costs of the 2018 World Cup on
Wednesday, coming to the decision that only the building of
stadiums and training facilities, as well as reconstruction of
airports in host cities and the roads leading from them to the
arenas will be funded from the federal budget.
Those are the projects, which the state is obliged to realize in
the deal signed with FIFA after winning the World Cup bid in
December 2010.
This means that city infrastructure, traffic system and other
expenses will be down to the regional authorities.
According to an unnamed employee of the government staff, the
regions have included all the possible expenses in their
applications – from repairing sewage and reconstructions of
hospitals to building fountains.
"We’re not going to finance this from the federal budget, that’s
what the regional programs for health and housing are for,” he
told Vedomosti newspaper.
The source added that it’s too early to talk about the final cost
of Russia 2018 as no preliminary estimates have been made by the
government at the moment.
It seems the regions, which were fighting for the right to host the
World Cup matches hoping to get federal money, have played the
wrong card, believes the director of Innovation, Infrastructure and
Investment Institute, Marina Udachina.
"The experience of the [Sochi 2014] Olympic Games shows that the
regional and city authorities struggle to attract funds even when
it comes to large projects –the leadership of Krasnodar Region and
Sochi haven’t been very successful in this field,” she
said.
Meanwhile, Udachina added that the most of the Russia 2018 host
cities need their urban environment to be improved in order to
stage the event at a high level.
Moscow, Kaliningrad, Kazan, Krasnodar, Nizhny Novgorod,
Rostov-on-Don, Saint Petersburg, Samara, Saransk, Sochi, Volgograd,
Yaroslavl and Yekaterinburg will host the World Cup matches, which
are scheduled to take place in Russia between June 8 and July 8,
2018.