By David Gold
March 14 – A delegation of British businesses with specialist knowledge of planning major sporting events have met with Russia 2018 in Moscow to learn about the commercial opportunities of the World Cup.
The delegation of companies was led by Damion Potter, the head of the commercial department at the British Embassy in Moscow.
They met with Russia 2018 chief executive Alexey Sorokin (pictured centre), who delivered a presentation on their concept for the tournament and spoke about opportunities for foreign companies.
“Our goal is to organise the best tournament in FIFA’s history,” Sorokin said.
“We can achieve this in part by drawing on foreign experience of how to design and build stadia, make commercial use of arenas, plan and stage events, ensure security at sports facilities and modernise transport infrastructure and information technology.
“This is a clear example of mutually beneficial cooperation.
“Foreign companies will be able to extend the geographical reach of their business, while Russia will benefit from the rich legacy of the World Cup, in the form of state-of-the-art infrastructure which the public will be able to use for many years to come.”
Russia is investing significantly in the World Cup, and plans to spend in the region of 300 billion roubles (£6.5 billion/$10 billion/€7.6 billion) in total.
That will mostly be spent on stadiums, with every single venue used for Russia 2018 being either renovated or built from scratch.
Major upgrades of the rail network and airports will also be taking place in the coming years.
Later this year FIFA will decide which cities will host matches during the tournament, and therefore, which stadiums will be used, with the delegation set to visit candidate cities during their time in Russia.
“When FIFA announced its decision on the host nation for the 2018 World Cup in December 2010, I had mixed feelings,” said Potter.
“As an Englishman I was disappointed that the World Cup would not come to my country, on the other hand, as head of the British Embassy Commercial Department, I was very happy about the world’s biggest sports event taking place in Russia, and the opportunities it would bring.
“Britain has great football traditions and experience in sports event management – like the English Premier League or the 2012 London Olympic Games.
“Many British companies are already working for the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic Games.
“We hope, by working with Russian partners, to be involved in a project of the magnitude of the FIFA World Cup 2018 in Russia.”
Russia 2018 and the British Embassy have previously collaborated on security issues, with a Russian delegation travelling to London and Manchester last month to study English sports security.
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