Alexander Dzhordzhadze: "FIFA requirements are reasonable and adequate"

This past week at the GUU a lecture by the assistant general director of 2018 FIFA World Cup organizational committee, and the director of the public relations department of FIFA Alexander Dzhordzhadze was given to the students of RMA «Sport Industry Management».

During the course of the training, the conversation covered various aspects of organizing and hosting the upcoming Russian Soccer championship of 2018. Mr. Dzhordzhadze paid particular attention to the legacy of this - one of the world's largest sports events, which for the first time will be taking place in our own country. «In 2006, the World Soccer Championship that took place in Germany had drawn over 2 million tourists, - said Mr. Dzhordzhadze. - After the championship was over, the results of the public polling had shown that the 85% of the responders expressed more favorable impression of Germany and Germans after they had visited the games. The world that well remembered who had instigated the two global wars, suddenly saw a different Germany: not an aggressive one, but a friendly, welcoming and cheerful one. While for the Germans themselves this championship effectively became a launching pad for resurrection of their national sentiment, the patriotism - the notion which, before this event, had nearly been regarded in Germany as prohibitive.

And for ourselves, the championship-2012 must become such event, that will give us the impulse for further advancements in our self perception and the understanding of our role in the world. Just look at how many tourists are visiting our country right now, this number is roughly equal to how many of our own citizens visit just two other countries such as Egypt and Turkey. As you understand that is not such a high volume. And here is for example another poll: only 6 percent of British would «consider the opportunity» to visit our championship. Of course it is understandable that these figures might be impacted by their own frustrations over the loss of their national bid for the championship hosting, but the overall tendency is clear, and we ought to try to change it.

We do have many critics, those who say that during this championship Russia not only will not earn anything in the process, but to the contrary will have to spend the large sums of money, which given the existence of other vital problems in the country may not represent the best investment. To me this kind of rationale reminds of the arguments that we should not pursue the space technology, and instead should just give all the money to the retirees. Those who think in these terms, do not understand that the legacy of the championship can not be measured in monetary terms only. It is a chance - our chance to change our country to the better, to change ourselves and to tell about these changes to the entire world», - summarized Alexander Dzhordzhadze.