MOSCOW, Dec 13 (Reuters) - Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich
will invest at least another $40 million in the Russian national
team in the hope of reviving it as he has done with London club
Chelsea.
Abramovich's National Soccer Academy foundation has earmarked
$30-40 million for the construction of a new training base for the
Russia team by 2008 and will also put money into building a new
stadium, his spokesman told Reuters on Wednesday.
The money is the latest part of an ambitious plan by the country's
richest man to lift Russian soccer up from the doldrums it has been
in since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
He already partly finances national coach Guus Hiddink's salary
package and has put millions of dollars into Moscow club CSKA, who
last year became the first Russian club to lift a European trophy
when they won the UEFA Cup.
Abramovich's foundation, which sponsors sports projects across
Russia, will pour cash into the building of a new national stadium
in Moscow, a project worth around $300 million, his spokesman
said.
'The Academy is ready to go forward to make sure it is built ...
The foundation is the main driver behind the stadium project,' he
added, declining to give the exact sum allocated.
Abramovich bought Chelsea in 2003 for 60 million pounds ($118
million). Helped by his seemingly limitless funds, Chelsea have won
two Premier League titles since his arrival.
It is a different story for the Russian national team, who failed
to qualify for this year's World Cup under former coach Yuri
Syomin.
Abramovich's plans of further investment into Russian sport will
likely boost his good reputation at home.
In the years of Vladimir Putin's presidency, marked with a campaign
against 'oligarchs' -- Russia's super-rich accused by the Kremlin
of neglecting national interests -- Abramovich has become a widely
cited positive example of a different approach.
During his governorship of the Chukotka region, Abramovich has
invested hundreds of millions of dollars and made use of his close
Kremlin ties to fight poverty in the bitterly cold and largely
deserted region in Russia's far east.
The Russian edition of Forbes magazine this year estimated
Abramovich's wealth, mostly from oil and aluminium assets, at $18.3
billion.
