Russia’s plan of hosting the 2018 FIFA World Cup could be in jeopardy after the president of soccer’s international governing body, Joseph “Sepp” Blatter, announced on Tuesday that he would resign.
“Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s Vladimir Osakovskiy estimated that the total cost of the event would pump around $50 billion in to the economy,” Business Insider reports. The news agency believes losing the World Cup could actually be a good thing for the country.
“Overall, we think if WC 2018 in Russia were cancelled it would likely have minimal impact on projected GDP dynamics as a large part of the planned public investment spending would still be made. Moreover, we think that apart from the negative sentiment, it could in fact be positive for Russian [local currency bonds] and [hard currency bonds] as despite the likely unchanged overall spending the government could be more flexible in any new investments projects, potentially redirecting them towards more profitable ones. This could be increasingly important, given the considerable tightening of fiscal policy in the next 2-3 years,” Osakovskiy elaborates in a research note.
Also the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar potentially could be at risk. However, according to U.K. bookmaker William Hill, the odds on Qatar losing the rights to the most-watched sporting event in the world were slashed to 5-4 from 5-1 on Tuesday, odds that the event still takes place in the desert state were set at 4-7.
Qatar is spending around $200 billion on infrastructure for the 2022 event, which includes constructing at least 8 new stadiums and a $35 billion metro and rail system.
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