Upcoming Brazil World Cup is proving to be a learning platform for many future world cups in one sense or another. Like, if we talk about climate conditions, we have Qatar world cup which is becoming one of the most controversial WCs ever, and if we talk about rising budget on infrastructure work, we have Russia who is the host of 2018 FIFA world cup. Actually, there is a big protest running throughout Brazil against the rising WC expenditure at the cost of their day to day necessities, in fact, many taxes have been imposed just to fund the setup bills despite Government’s earlier promise not to burden general public for FIFA cup’s expending. Fearing a similar protest, South Africa has cut down its budget considerably isolating organizers to nowhere. Actually, a dent on construction budget has been put on by Russia’s Ministry of Economic Development who restricted the projected spend in almost seven World Cup areas from $442 million per unit to $386 million per unit saving $389 million in total. Though, the move is being welcomed by a mass section of public groups, there is another section which is criticizing the decision in the wake of world cup preparations, in fact, these critics are blaming political interference for the same otherwise there would have been no reason they can’t meet the deadlines much before.
One of the prominent critics is State Duma Chairman of the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Katrenko, who said this is an insane idea to scrap commercial zones at these seven places just to reduce money outlay, he said, “According to the logic of the Ministry of Economic Development, there will be just boxes in the open field where you can’t properly eat, go shopping or walk with children before or after the match. With an approach like this, we’ll never learn how to earn money on football.”
He also criticized FIFA’s consent to reduce the capacity of some stadiums which are going to host some major events, like Luzhniki Stadium which was forced by Moscow City Hall under FIFA pressure, to reduce the sitting capacity from 89,000 to just 81,000; this place is going to host three highly crowded matches, i.e., opening game, semi-final, and the final.
Since, the reduction is minor comparing the total $7.5 billion expected budget, this should not be a great concern for the world cup fans, but if it further reduces under any pressure, we can experience a repeat of Brazil ongoing protests.