Russia okays $150m to subsidise World Cup venues

MOSCOW: The Russian government approved Friday rules on subsidising construction of infrastructure for the 2018 football World Cup for a total of over 5.5 billion rubles ($151 million, 113 million euros).

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree setting out how regions hosting the matches can tap the funds under the government´s programme to support the World Cup.

While Russia successfully transformed the Black Sea resort of Sochi into a glittering sports venue to host February´s Winter Olympics, at a cost of over $50 billion, the World Cup presents an even bigger challenge as a radical overhaul is needed of sports, tourist and transport infrastructure in a string of under-developed regions across the vast country.

Some of the venues are already complete or well on schedule -- but elsewhere work will be starting from scratch.

The programme has identified 28 projects including modernising the water and heating systems in cities hosting matches.

Officials have previously estimated that $20 billion will be needed to prepare for the World Cup, with about half coming from private investors and the other from regional government budgets. (AFP)