Russian authorities are proposing to impose fines of 2M rubles ($40,000) per day on World Cup 2018 stadium developers for running behind schedule. As things currently stand, only three stadiums have been completed, while construction of two has not yet begun. The idea of fining developers has been adopted by the 2018 FIFA World Cup organizing committee, the Russian business daily Vedomosti reported. The move was apparently triggered by the fact that construction of several World Cup stadiums is running substantially behind schedule. With the main football event's kickoff date just three years away, only Otkrytie Arena in Moscow, Kazan Arena in Kazan and Fisht in Sochi are completed at the moment. Project designs for arenas in Kaliningrad and Yekaterinburg have not yet been approved.
FIGHTING DELAYS: A spokesman for PSO Kazan, the developer for the stadiums in Samara and Saransk, told SBD Global that he has doubts about the effectiveness of the new fine system. "All state contracts already stipulate fines for running behind schedule," he said, adding that both World Cup construction projects his company is involved with are on schedule. Over the past year, developers have complained that stadium budgets, financed mostly by federal and local authorities, are not sufficient, but those complaints eventually died down. A similar fine system was introduced for developers of the 2014 Sochi Olympics projects back in '12, when it became clear that construction was running behind schedule. And although significant fines were imposed on some developers, most of them were later canceled as construction was eventually completed on schedule.
Vladimir Kozlov is a writer in Moscow.
