On 10 December 2010, FIFA announced Russia as the host country for the 2018 FIFA World Cup. Russia’s Bid Committee was considered to have the strongest Bid Book, the best support of the Russian Government and personally of Vladimir Putin, and a strong will to obtain the tournament. 7,5 years passed, and now Russia has 12 new stadiums, new airports, hospitals and other infrastructure that has been built specially for the World Cup. But the organization of the World Cup had begun by establishing its legal framework.
It became a tradition in Russia to harmonize national legislation with requirements of the organizers of international events in dedicated federal law, i.e. such federal laws have been adopted for the 2012 Summit of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation in Vladivostok and for the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi. It was decided to use the same approach for the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
At the beginning of 2011, the Russian Government, along with the Russian Football Union, had established the Local Organizing Committee (LOC) for the tournament that would be responsible before FIFA to host competitions and related events inside the country. In the same year, the LOC’s legal team headed, by the author of this article, had started the draft of the federal law dedicated to the 2018 FIFA World Cup. It took almost two years to develop the bill, to approve it with all stakeholders and to adopt it at the Russian Parliament.
The main purpose of this federal law...
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