On Sunday, FIFA officially passed the hosting rights to the 2018 World Cup tournament to President Vladimir Putin on behalf of Russia in a special ceremony, NDTV reported. Russia's winning bid to host one of the most celebrated sporting events in the world came amid the concerns about the country's capability to serve as FIFA's official venue after spending over $50 billion for this year's Winter Olympics in Sochi.
Ahead of the ceremony, Putin attempted to squash those concerns on Friday and said, "We successfully hosted the Winter Olympics...in Sochi and now know exactly what a challenge it is to organize an event of such caliber."
Putin also confided to Cuba's Prensa Latina and Russia's state ITAR-TASS news agencies, "We will do our best to present the world an unforgettable football feast and genuine Russian hospitality in 2018."
Pundits have the right to be concerned. Russian spending money that almost tethered the Kremlin into almost bankruptcy did not garner any good reviews from Olympic attendees, most noticeably from the foreign press and athletes, who have shared their thoughts on some of the unfinished lodgings and facilities on social media. For the 2018 tournament, Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko touted the initial bill in ensuring that Russia would be ready to host the World Cup at 680 billion roubles ($20 billion/14.7 billion euros), which would be the biggest ever to be invested in preparations for the sporting event.
Martin Muller of the Unviersity of Zurich, who had been studying Russia's preparations for the tournament, said, "Rather than building a ‘new Russia,' as proponents claim, the mega-event magnifies the problems of the old Russia."
Just like what Brazil did, ABC News said Russia is also planning to host the tournament matches in 12 stadiums in 11 cities that are stretched from the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad on the Baltic Sea to Yekaterinburg in the Ural Mountains.
