Vladimir Putin has been holding forth about what Russia will gain by investing billions of dollars in preparations for the 2018 World Cup. Apart from boosting investment in infrastructure, the football will have a positive impact on the health of the nation by encouraging people to quit smoking and drinking and play sports instead. Or so he says.
The Russian president was talking up the advantages of hosting World Cup at the weekend as football supremo Sepp Blatter arrived in Moscow to reveal the 11 cities in European Russia that FIFA has selected to host the football matches. The World Cup would promote healthy living in Russia by inspiring more young people to play sport, Putin told Russian television on Saturday.
“Once infected by sport they will give up alcohol and tobacco,” he said. “We have recently been giving more and more attention to sports programs and this is important bearing in mind our demographic programmes.” Russia has seen a serious fall in its population since the collapse of the Soviet Union that will have dire consequences for the economy if not reversed. Many demographic experts cite widespread smoking and alcohol abuse in Russia as the main cause of the demographic decline. Government efforts to address the problem, including advertising campaigns and draconian increases in alcohol and tobacco taxes, appear to be having results.
After falling from 148.7m to 141.9m between 1991 and 2009, the population inched up by 100,000 in 2011. It’s conceivable that hosting the prestigious World Cup will encourage healthy living in Russia not to mention the feel-good-factor that, demographers say, motivates people to have bigger families. But for all its hidden benefits, the event will be hugely expensive. Meeting Blatter at the weekend, Russia’s sports minister Vitaly Mutko said preparations for the football would cost about Rbs600bn ($19bn) – almost double earlier estimates. The government would foot 50 per cent of the bill itself and tap private investors for the rest, he said. Russian companies are already under pressure to help pay for the Sochi Winter Olympics in 2014 and will probably have to cough up for the World Cup as well.
Some investors see the football as an opportunity and are competing to pay for facilities. Leonid Fedun, the vice president of Lukoil, has won a bid to hold the World Cup semi-finals at the new stadium he is building for his Spartak football club in Moscow. Fedun’s project beat competition from VTB, the Russian bank, which is funding a new stadium for the Dinamo team in Moscow, according to Vedomosti, the Russian business daily. That’s Moscow. Less prosperous cities in Russia’s regions selected by FIFA (including Kazan, Sochi, Ekaterinburg, Samara, Saransk, Rostov-on-Don, Nizhny Novgorod, Volgograd and Kaliningrad) have even more to gain from hosting the events.
Putin spared some kind words for cities left off FIFA’s list. “Sadly this happens. But we will try to ensure that training centers are located in these cities and relaxation centers for sportsmen so that world champions playing in the competition will visit anyway.” Not much comfort there for Sergei Galitsky the billionaire general director of Russian food retailer Magnit. He had hoped the €200m stadium he is building for his Krasnodar football club, in southern Russia, would make it onto FIFA’s list. Galitsky told Vedomosti he would press on regardless with the stadium project out of love for football. He’ll also continue to support the new football school he has founded in Krasnodar to train future Russian champions. If successful they could be a bigger boost for Russian health programmes than the World Cup. Let’s hope Galitsky gets some thanks.
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