Western sanctions and weak rouble putting strain on Russia’s World Cup plans

With just over three years to go until Russia hosts the World Cup, western sanctions and the weakened rouble are taking their toll on preparations, as the government tries to cut costs and avoid the kind of overspend that led to Sochi 2014 becoming the most expensive Olympic Games in history.

The Fifa president, Sepp Blatter, said he had spoken with Vladimir Putin during a visit to Russia earlier this year and was assured "there is no intention to ask Fifa to change anything in the pattern and the program of the World Cup and we trust Russia will find a solution".

This week the Swiss added that he “is a happy and proud president. I am proud that Russia is getting ready to host the World Cup”.

However, even with the rouble winning back some of its losses since the new year, it is clear that the weaker Russian currency means there will have to be some cutbacks. In January, the sports minister, Vitaly Mutko, said administration costs would be cut by 10 per cent , while more recently he announced 25 luxury hotels meant for the "Fifa family" would not be built at all. The total budget now stands at 637.6 billion roubles (€11.1 billion), 4 per cent lower than it was projected to be last year.

Earlier this month, the prime minister, Dmitry Medvedev, signed an order calling for five of the World Cup stadiums currently under construction to provide for the "replacement of equipment and materials of foreign production with Russian analogues" wherever possible. The order applies to the stadiums in Samara, Saransk, Volgograd, Nizhny Novgorod and Rostov-on-Don, each of which will seat 45,000.

The tournament will lead to 12 stadiums being built or reconstructed, two of them in Moscow and the rest spread across the European part of Russia, from Kaliningrad on the Baltic to Yekaterinburg in the Urals. Many supporters will need to utilise air travel, with some host cities 24 hours away from Moscow by train. High-speed links promised for some of the host cities in time for the tournament are unlikely to be ready on time.

Even if all the stadiums are constructed on time, there is a fear of white elephants in some of the host cities. Saransk, a surprising inclusion in Russia’s list, has a population of just 300,000 and normally has only one flight to Moscow a day. Even after its stadium is reduced to a 25,000 capacity after the World Cup, it is unclear whether there will be demand to use it.

On April 4th a World Cup organising committee led by the first deputy prime minister, Igor Shuvalov, visited Volgograd to check on the preparations. The stadium will be located at the foot of the staggeringly large monument to Mother Russia in the city, which commemorates those who died in the Battle of Stalingrad. However, only a few days after the trip, the local team Rotor Volgograd, expected to play in the stadium when the World Cup is over and who famously beat Manchester United in 1995, announced they had gone bankrupt and were being wound up.

There have been some isolated calls to strip Russia of the tournament altogether for its actions in Ukraine, both from Kiev and from the US, where 13 senators, including John McCain, wrote to Fifa to ask them to transfer the event to another country.

Russia has already faced problems integrating the football teams in annexed Crimea into the Russian league, while one of the World Cup host cities, Rostov-on-Don, has acted as the staging point for Russia’s covert invasion of Ukraine, with armour and men crossing the border under cover of night as well as training camps for separatist fighters in the region.

The letter signed by the US senators said holding the event in Russia “inappropriately bolsters the prestige” of Putin’s regime at a time when it should be condemned. They pointed out that nearly half of the nations who took part in the 2014 World Cup currently have sanctions on Russia. Such arguments are unlikely to have much sway with Blatter and Fifa, who are not fans of allowing politics to get in the way of football tournaments and the vast revenues they generate.

“In my opinion the World Cup in Russia will be able to stabilise all the situation in this region of Europe that is suffering now,” said Blatter in response for calls to move the tournament because of the Ukraine issue. “I am sure that football is stronger than any other movement.”

(Guardian service)