Two billionaires, Chelsea Owner Roman Abramovich and Arsenal shareholder Alexander Usmanov, are among the oligarchs "being asked to bankroll a World Cup now in trouble because of an impending recession caused by plunging oil prices and Western sanctions over Ukraine," according to Alan Hubbard of the London INDEPENDENT. Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko has already announced a 10% cut in the World Cup's original $22B budget, while FIFA President Sepp Blatter has "suggested the number of venues could be reduced." Mutko said that the Kremlin is "looking to attract private donors, though he would not say who these might be." But other Russian sources said that President Vladimir Putin plans to call in favors from "obliging oligarchs such as Abramovich and Usmanov, as he did when Russia staged the last global sporting extravaganza," Sochi's $51B Winter Olympics a year ago. It is "already evident that the World Cup will not be anywhere near as lavish as Putin had demanded, and if the economy worsens, could be run on a shoestring" (INDEPENDENT, 2/14).
