MOSCOW, September 10 (R-Sport) – The Russian government pledged on Tuesday to invest more than $30 million in all-weather football pitches for children to learn the game.
The 1 billion rubles ($30.3 million) of funding will pay for indoor football pitches that can withstand the harsh Russian winter, with almost $22.5 million of that sum to go to two Siberian regions.
The Russian Cabinet voted “to approve the allocation of subsidies granted in 2013 from the federal budget to regional budgets of the Russian Federation for the construction and equipping of indoor football halls for specialized youth football schools,” a government website statement said.
The project is similar to work carried out by billionaire Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich’s foundation, the National Academy of Football, which says it has built about 200 all-weather pitches for children across Russia using Abramovich’s money.
