By Paul Osborne

Around $34 million will be used to develop training grounds ahead of the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia ©Getty ImagesJanuary 12 - Russia's Cabinet of Ministers has announced that around $34 million (£21 million/€25 million) will be spent on developing training grounds across the country ahead of the 2018 FIFA World Cup.


According to Russian news agency Ria Novosti, the preparation programme will provide the construction and renovation of 113 training facilities, 48 of which are listed as "pre-match training grounds" and the other 65 of which are "grounds at team base camps".

The overall cost of the World Cup is estimated to be around $20 million (£12 million/€15 million), with most of the money being spent on the renovation and construction of the 12 Stadiums across the 11 host cities.

The Fisht Olympic Stadium is one of just two venues completed ahead of the 2018 FIFA World Cup ©Getty ImagesThe Fisht Olympic Stadium in Sochi s one of just two venues completed ahead of the 2018 FIFA World Cup ©Getty Images



As it stands just two of the 12 Stadiums are ready - the Kazan Arena and Fisht Olympic Stadium, which is set to host the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the Sochi Winter Games, although neither has hosted their first official football match.

Spartak Moscow's new 44,000-seater Otkrytie Arena is set to be the next venue completed, with the Stadium scheduled to be opened in July ready for the 2014-2015 season.

Other Stadiums are barely into their design stages, including the rebuilt Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow which will host the opening match, a semi-final and the final.

The Stadium was closed after the World Athletics Championships at the end of last year in order to begin the rebuild, with Moscow City Hall hoping the reconstruction, which will see a capacity increase of 3,000 to 81,000, will be completed by April 2017.

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