February 28 – The Russian Football Union has re-elected the country’s Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko as its representative on FIFA’s executive committee Wednesday.
Mutko has been a member of FIFA’s executive committee since 2009. He was in charge of the Russian FA from 2005 to 2009.
“If Russia was not the host of the World Cup, I would possibly have not gone to this post,” he said after the FA’s executive committee approved him for the FIFA role. Mutko played a leading role in Russia’s successful bid to host the 2018 World Cup.
Mutko was minister for sports, tourism and youth policy from 2008 until May 2012, when his portfolio was reduced to cover only sport.
He has just announced a new eight-year sports budget for Russia budget of RUB 1.6 trillion ($52.2 billion) for the 2013-2020 period.
67.4 billion rubles ($2.2 billion) has been earmarked to spend on the infrastructure and preparations for hosting the FIFA Confederations Cup 2017 and the FIFA World Cup 2018.
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