2018 World Cup will cost Russia around €16bn

The Russian Ministry of Sports and Tourism has issued the financial feasibility study for the draft law «On the organization of the 2018 World Football Cup in the Russian Federation», according to Izvestia.

The document is an estimate of all expenses to be incurred by the Russian budgets and investors in order to properly hold the FIFA World Cup and the Confederations Cup, which is usually held one year prior to the World Cup start.

Total amount of expenses according to the document makes 632.373 billion roubles (€15.8 billion). Most of the money will be spent for infrastructure not associated directly with football. For example, the construction and reconstruction of roads is the greatest item of expenses requiring 241.59 billion roubles (€6 billion). The share of the federal budget funding in the road expenses is planned at level of 66.6 billion roubles, regional budgets will give 81.9 billion, and another 92.9 billion will be provided from off-budget sources.

The second place by funding volumes is taken by the construction and reconstruction of stadiums. Russia’s World Cup bid included 16 arenas in 13 cities, however, FIFA considers 12 stadiums in 12 cities a sufficient number to hold the event.

Not all of the 12 stadiums will be funded from the federal budget. Zenit’s stadium in St. Petersburg, for example, is being constructed at the expense of the additional incomes of the city budget, which have originated after Gazprom Neft moved to St. Petersburg and began paying their taxes there.

The federal budget will take part in the financing of 10 stadiums. The expected costs will make 123.086 billion (€3 billion).

The construction of the training camps for the participant teams will cost 46.35 billion roubles (€1.2 billion). The estimate has been made with an assumption that these will be training grounds with hotels having at least 75 rooms and classed from 4 to 5 stars. Thus, each room will have a floor area of at least 50 square meters.