Costly football in Russia

Expenses for the World Cup in Kazan will exceed 4.4 billion rubles.
Tatarstan did not manage to get money from Moscow even for half the cost of organizing the World Cup in Kazan. Expenses for it, according to the latest calculations of the government of the republic, exceeded 4.4 billion rubles. Of these, 2.3 billion Tatarstan took over. However, experts are sure that investments in the mundial, which officials in the republic consider an investment project, will justify themselves. "To propiate Kazan to the whole world from the point of view of sport and cultural heritage is to attract tourists for several years to come," they believe.

Football World Cup in Kazan authorities will cost more than 4.4 billion rubles. This follows from the latest edition of the regional program for the preparation and holding of the mundialya, signed by the Prime Minister of the republic Alexei Pesoshin. According to the document, of this amount more than half (2.4 billion rubles.) Will be spent on the installation and subsequent dismantling of temporary structures. The rest is mainly for the reconstruction of eight stadiums and sports facilities, which will be used as training grounds, as well as for construction for 135.8 million rubles. electric cable line 10 kV, which was taken over by the Government of Tatarstan JSC "Grid Company". A separate line in the program indicates "equipping the stadium with a grass cover" worth 50 million rubles.

The 2018 FIFA World Cup will be held from June 14 to July 15. Matches will be held in 11 Russian cities. In particular, Kazan Arena will host the games on June 16 (match France-Australia), June 20 (Iran-Spain), June 24 (Poland-Colombia), June 27 (South Korea-Germany), June 30 (1/8 final ) and on July 6 (1/4 finals). FIFA presents to the host cities of the World Cup a number of requirements for sports, transport, tourism (hotel) infrastructure, improvement. The authorities of Tatarstan immediately after it became known in September 2012 that Kazan will host the World Cup announced that the city and sports infrastructure will not require large investments, since it was erected for the Universiade 2013. Recall that the students' games were built stadium "Kazan arena "For 45 thousand spectators and many other objects. The total budget of the Universiade amounted to 228 billion rubles, of which 68.3 billion rubles. region was allocated by the federal center. Authorities in Tatarstan regard the holding of major international events as investment projects and actively claim the right to receive them. So, in 2019 in Kazan the world championship of working professions of WorldSkills will take place.

In January 2013, the government of Tatarstan approved a program for the preparation and holding of the World Cup. Its budget at that time amounted to almost 3.9 billion rubles., Of which 1.8 billion rubles. was to provide the federal center, 1.9 billion rubles. - Tatarstan, and 135.8 million rubles. - Network company. Then the program was adjusted so that its cost increased by half - in May 2015, the planned expenses reached 5.98 billion rubles: Tatarstan laid the projects of the Network company for 1.5 billion rubles, reduced its participation in financing to 1 , 64 billion rubles., And on the federal center, I registered expenses for the amount of 2.8 billion rubles. It is noteworthy that only then on the lawn at the stadium in Kazan, the republican government laid 668.5 million rubles, which it expected to receive completely from the federal center. Probably, these plans met Moscow's hard response: by December 2017, the parameters of the program had returned to their original positions, including the lawn again costing 50 million rubles.

However, this year the program has risen by half a billion due to the growth of expenses for temporary constructions. Moscow agreed to add to the previously agreed amount of only 117 million rubles. The rest of the difference will have to be covered by Kazan itself. Thus, out of 4.4 billion rubles. the cost of preparing the World Cup is just over 1.9 billion rubles. undertook to provide the federal center, and 2.3 billion rubles. - Tatarstan.


Experts call the participation of the federal center in financing the World Cup in Kazan "symbolic support." "Kazan largely thanks to the Universiade, as well as Sochi due to the Olympics, has been left out of the main cash flows simply because, firstly, the infrastructure and main facilities for sporting events are already there, and secondly, because this is one of the most economically successful regions participating in the World Cup, "explains the director of the expert group Veta Dmitry Zharskiy. Director of the Alpari Analytical Department Alexander Razuvaev agrees that Moscow preferred "to help the pronounced depressive regions." However, at the same time, Mr. Razuvaev does not consider the mundial an unsuccessful investment project for Kazan, which did not allow attracting significant federal resources. "To propiate Kazan to the whole world from the point of view of sport and cultural heritage is to attract tourists for several years to come. Matches, which will be in Kazan, will undoubtedly go down in the history of world football, "- says the expert, believing that the invested funds will partly return due to tourism. And Mr. Zharky adds that "sports events at the level of the World Cup, the Olympiad, the Universiade are activities aimed primarily at maintaining the status of host countries and cities, and not on making profits."