MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Expenses on the preparation of the World Cup 2018 that will be hosted in Russia have been cut back by $558 million, according to a government decision published on its website.
The tournament will now cost $11.7 billion.
Russia’s Sport Minister Vitaly Mutko told R-Sport that the number of hotels planned for construction would be decreased. The cuts will not affect the construction of stadiums.
Matches will take place in the Russian cities of Moscow, Kaliningrad, St. Petersburg, Volgograd, Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod, Samara, Saransk, Rostov-on-Don, Sochi and Yekaterinburg.
Russia won the World Cup bid in December 2010.
Russia's hosting of the World Cup tournament has come under scrutiny in recent weeks. In late May, Switzerland opened an investigation into the bidding process for World Cup host countries, specifically Russia in 2018 and Qatar in 2022.
