Recent reports out of Russia, the hosts of Football’s World Cup, claim that the game is on the breadline, and President Vladimir Putin has had to ask for help from two billionaires with Premier League connections.
Roman Abramovich owner of Chelsea and Alexander Usmanov owner of Arsenal are two of the oligarchs being asked to help bankroll the tournament as the impending recession has the government very concerned.
Sports minister Vitaly Mutko has already revealed ten per cent cut in the original World Cup budget of USD$22billion. FIFA President Sepp Blatter has also hinted that the number of venues used may well be reduced, a suggestion that Mutko has denied. He has said that designs will be simplified but will still meet FIFA requirements.
He did not deny that The Kremlin is trying to attract private donors but would not reveal who these were. Other sources are convinced that Abramovich and Usmanov are top of the list as these two were asked to help out when Russia staged the $51billion winter Olympics in Sochi last year. These were the most expensive winter games on record.
The World Cup will be an event no where near as lavish as the economy begins to bite. Many believing that this will indeed, despite a very impressive bid document in which all visitors were promised free travel in Russia, a World Cup put together on a shoestring budget. Corners may well be cut, let us just hope that no lives are lost a result of work not being done properly.
Could FIFA have foreseen the problems that Russia now faces. Some politicial analysts have said that the writing was on the wall, when votes were cast. Sadly the FIFA Executive rarely look that far ahead, all many of them are interested in seeing is what is under the table.
