Critic Blasts Russia's World Cup Bid

Only two of the 13 proposed host cities in Russia have the adequate infrastructure to host such an event, according to Russian sports expert Yury Ivanov. He calls the bid a big waste of money, and largely at the whim of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

The sports expert says that one can compare Russia’s situation with South Africa’s in the run-up to the world cup this year. Pretoria spent some three billion dollars to get ready, Ivanov says, but “Russia’s expenses, considering all [its] problems with corruption will be one and a half times greater.”

The idea of pursuing the world cup, the writer says, “according to rumors belongs to Vladimir Putin,” and that explains why “the tactics of the struggle of the Russian Football Union … repeat the pattern of the struggle for the Olympiad in Sochi: Everything is being build on the basis of the personal guarantees of the prime minister.”

Putin’s Pursuit of Sports Glory Busting Russia’s Budget
Georgian Daily
August 23, 2010