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The Bid is backed by the Federal and City Authorities including the Minister for Sport, the Foreign Affairs Department and the Mayor of Moscow. The event also has the backing of the City of Moscow Sports Committee, which has an annual sports budget of over $600m and world class experience in staging sports events.
The RUR believes that if they win the Bid, the event will help grow Rugby Union within Russia and also internationally by uniting the Russia of Europe with the Russia of Asia under one, enormous rugby playing nation, which will create a sustainable platform for the game’s global growth which no other Bid can match.
Vyacheslav Kopiev, the president of the RUR, said: ‘Winning the Moscow 2009 Sevens would help create a new, rugby nation which uniquely straddles Europe and Asia and will deliver a significant and sustainable contribution to the global growth of the game at an amateur and professional level. It will help us achieve our objective of being a top twelve rugby nation within 5 years.’
‘Mix the development potential of Russia with the existing Olympic class sporting infrastructure, add the global tourist appeal of a capital City like Moscow and you have a cocktail of factors which can make the Moscow 2009 Sevens Tournament the best ever to date.’
RUR believes bringing the IRB Sevens to Moscow in 2009 will help create a lasting legacy for rugby union in the country because it will:
· trigger further public sector funding for the game (the City of Moscow Sports Committee will put rugby union onto the school sports curriculum for the first time)
· stimulate further commercial investment in Russia’s grass roots and professional game, where the newly formed professional league is already taking root
· inspire new players to take up the game
‘Russian rugby union is already making great progress. Winning this Bid will help us accelerate that progress and make rugby union the fifth most popular sport in the country,’ continued Kopiev.
The event would be staged at the recently upgraded Luzhniki stadium, which staged the 1980 Olympics and has since hosted thousands of national and international events to millions of spectators.
‘Moscow is a world class capital City and a destination of choice for tourists. It has an outstanding sporting, cultural, culinary and commercial heritage and a sports mad local public who help create an Olympic style ambience to the Tournament,’ said Alexey Sorokin, head of the City of Moscow Sports Committee.
The winner of the bid will be announced on May 3.
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