According to the president of FIFA, SeppBlatter believes that Vladimir Putin and Russia in it’s entirety should be praised for the work that they have been doing in relation to the 2018 World Cup.
SeppBlatter said: “You and the steering committee deserve five stars. Some people want the World Cup to be taken away from Russia, but we give one answer to this we are involved in football and we will not allow politics to get in the way.”
Blatter and Putin were seen together during a sports convention in a Russian resort of Sochi. Both influential figures expressed details concerning the approaching international competition.
There is a budget of £7.9bn which is lower than how it was projected to be last year and this is due to the economic troubles that Russia is experiencing as they had to cut and slash down the administrative costs of the competition for around 10%. The economic struggles of Russia is mainly due to the price of oil having sustained a significant drop in the last few years and this brings a negative string of consequences for Russia as oil is their main export product and are now forced to export it at a cheaper price.
Russia and Ukraine do not have a healthy relationship and in order to avoid having the risk of certain players or national sides at risk, a number of calls and petitions have been made where senators and influential figures from different countries have suggested and wrote to FIFA about the possibility of moving the approaching 2018 World Cup to a different country but it doesn’t seem like it’s going to happen as SeppBlatter is certain that Russia is the ideal place.