Russia increases World Cup subsidies by $13 million
MOSCOW (AP) Russia has increased its government subsidies for the World Cup by $13 million amid concerns over the legacy of the tournament.
Two government orders allocate an extra 481.6 million rubles ($7.6 million) for temporary World Cup infrastructure and 334.2 million rubles ($5.3 million) to the state company responsible for maintaining the stadiums.
That takes total spending on the World Cup to around 679 billion rubles ($10.7 billion), though that doesn't include some key spending on infrastructure.
Analysis by Russian business news outlet RBK has put the total spend closer to $14 billion, which would make the World Cup the most expensive ever.
Several Russian regional officials have asked for more federal spending after the World Cup to stop the stadiums losing millions of dollars a year, since they are expensive to maintain and often several times larger than the average crowd for Russian league games.
