�����ƽ��

The 2018 FIFA World Cup was held in Russia, with the 64 games across the tournament held at 12 venues up and down the country. The largest venue of the World Cup was the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, with a capacity of over 78,000. This stadium was the venue for the 2018 final, which saw France emerge victorious after a 4-2 defeat of Croatia.

Stadium renovations

Hosting one of the largest sporting events in the world is no walk in the park and Russia took on the task of building and renovating the stadiums that were to be used for the 2018 World Cup. As the venue of the opening match and the final, the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow was the focal point of the competition. In preparation for the event, the original stadium was demolished in 2013 and the construction of the new stadium was finished in 2017. In order to increase the capacity of the stadium, the athletics track around the pitch was removed. These renovation works seemed to pay off as the 2018 World Cup was attended by over three million people, with each game drawing in an average attendance of 47,371.

Who foots the bill?

Whilst the host country of any World Cup incurs a significant amount of these renovation costs, it also gets help from the organizers, FIFA. In preparation for the 2018 World Cup, FIFA allocated 627 million U.S. dollars for investment in “local organization”, which amounted to almost one third of the entire budget. A further 400 million U.S. dollars of the budget (21 percent) was spent on the prize pot. Having taken home the famous trophy in 2018, France not only won the global bragging rights for the next four years, but they also pocketed a handsome 38 million U.S. dollars in prize money.