Scoring an offside goal

When FIFA awarded the hosting rights for the 2018 World Cup to the Russian Football Association in December 2010, as always, much was said about how much the event’s preparations, initially estimated at USD 16 bln provided by both the Russian government and private investors, would positively impact the host cities and the rest of the country. Four-and-a-half-years, a ruble crisis, the Winter Olympics and an FBI investigation later, as the work on the construction sites spread from Kaliningrad to Ekaterinburg, from St Petersburg southwards to Sochi, gradually advances, Russia is cancelling some of the planned investment projects, trimming down the World Cup budget to app. USD 10 bln and even faces the risk of losing the tournament on corruption grounds. Mega events under little control “As the scandal has unfolded, it has been alleged that FIFA executives have been selling hosting rights to a marketing company in exchange for money that would go