Russia to cut spending of 2018 FIFA World Cup projects
Xinhua, April 7, 2015 Adjust font size:
Russia will cut over 400 million U. S. dollars of its spending of the 2018 FIFA World Cup, Sports Ministry said Monday.
According to the report published at the government website, 25 events will be cancelled and 14 more downsized in order to save 27 billion rubles (over 475 million U.S. dollars) for the organizers.
Those projects to be trimmed are mainly accommodations provided for participants, guests of the competitions and media staff in various Russia cities like Volgograd and Kaliningrad.
Nizhny Novgorod at the Middle Volga river suffers the most severe cuts, with all its 14 hotels to be removed from the accommodation project list.
The decision to cut spending was announced in late January, while Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko then cited economic restraints as the reasons.
Mutko also refuted suggestions that Russia could downsize football stadiums to save money. "FIFA won't let us do that," he said.
The total budget for the event was set at 664 billion rubles in 2012. The figure stood at about 20 billion U.S. dollars at that time, but it drops to nearly half the number according to current exchange rate.
Preparations for the games require implementation of about 300 infrastructure projects in 11 host cities. Besides, 20 more cities were involved in visitors' accommodation service program. Endite