Published :
Updated :
For all latest news, follow The Financial Express Google News channel.
The 2018 World Cup added more than $14 billion to the Russian economy, more than one percent of the country's gross domestic product, tournament organisers said in Doha on Tuesday.
The figure was revealed in a report on the economic, social, and environmental impact of the tournament by Alexey Sorokin, the CEO of Russia's World Cup organising committee.
"The figure the report comes up with is quite surprising," Sorokin told a football conference in Qatar, which is the host of the next World Cup in 2022.
It calculated that the impact of the World Cup on Russian GDP between 2013 and 2018 was 952 billion roubles ($14.5 billion, 12.5 billion euros).
This was the equivalent of 1.1 per cent of GDP.
The report, prepared by Russian World Cup organisers, also said that the tournament created up to 315,000 jobs per year in Russia and would still have an impact on the economy over the next five years.
In the five-year run-up to the World Cup, and from the jobs earned income grew by a total of 450 billion rubles. Small businesses also saw profits spike by almost 800 billion rubles.
The knock-on effect could bring up to 210 billion rubles ($3.2 billion) of annual revenue in the next five years, the report said.
Tourism development brought an estimated $3 billion into the economy, surpassing previous football tournaments in Brazil, South Africa and Japan but falling short of the 2006 World Cup in Germany, the Vedemosti business daily reported.
Despite warnings prior to the tournament over hooliganism and the political situation involving Russia and Western countries, the 2018 World Cup was considered a success.
It is not clear if the figures were subjected to any independent scrutiny.