Moscow, Nov 2 (IANS) The Russian government has set aside over 156 billion rubles ($2.5 billion) in the draft federal budget for 2017-19 on holding the 2018 football World Cup, Head of the Finance Ministry Department for Fiscal Policy in the Social Sphere and Science Svetlana Gashkina said on Wednesday.
"On the whole, we have 156.4 billion rubles over the three years on the world football championship," she said at a session of the State Duma Committee for Physical Culture, Sport, Tourism and Youth Affairs, reports Tass.
These resources are planned in the draft budget in full, she added.
Russia won the bid to host the 2018 World Cup over four years ago in a tight race against the joint bid from England, Portugal and Spain and the joint bid on behalf of Belgium and the Netherlands.
Russia selected 11 host cities to be the venues for the matches of the 2018 World Cup and they are Moscow, St. Petersburg, Sochi, Kazan, Saransk, Kaliningrad, Volgograd, Rostov-on-Don, Nizhny Novgorod, Yekaterinburg and Samara.
The matches of the 2018 World Cup will be held between June 14 and July 15 at 12 stadiums located in the 11 mentioned above cities across Russia. Two of the stadiums are located in the Russian capital.
