Moscow airport announces $865m expansion ahead of WCup

FIFA fines Spain over under-age players

MOSCOW, Oct 25, (AFP): Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport, the largest in Russia, has invested $865 million into building a new terminal and expanding its operations ahead of the 2018 World Cup, its chief executive said Tuesday.

“We can say with certainty that the construction is moving along according to our deadlines and ahead of schedule in certain cases,” Sheremetyevo’s CEO Mikhail Vasilenko told reporters.

“This will allow us to have all the necessary infrastructure for the World Cup so that the country’s guests feel at ease.”

Sheremetyevo’s expansion, which is mostly funded by private money, is expected to raise the airport’s capacity from 35 million to 55 million passengers per year. The upgrade will allow the airport to handle 90 takeoffs or landings per hour, as opposed to the current 55.

As part of the investment Sheremetyevo, which serves as the hub of Russia’s flagship carrier Aeroflot, will be building a $305-million terminal for domestic flights.

The new terminal will be linked to the existing ones by a railway tunnel worth $245 million, which is being built below the runways without affecting air traffic.

A third runway, as well as a cargo facility, will also be constructed in the expansion.

Inaugurated in 1957, Sheremetyevo is set to carry more than 33 million passengers this year.

Its capacity is expected to reach 80 million passengers per year in 2026, Vasilenko said.

Russia will host the 2018 World Cup in 11 cities including Moscow, Saint Petersburg

and Sochi.

FIFA on Tuesday fined the Spanish football federation more than $220,000 in the latest stage of its battle with the country over the transfer of under-age players.

Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid have all been sanctioned by the world body in recent years for illegally signing foreign under 18 players.

On top of the fine of 220,000 Swiss francs ($221,000/203,000 euros), the Spanish federation, the RFEF, was given a reprimand and six months to get its regulations in line with FIFA rules.

FIFA said the latest case involves minors who played for Atletico Madrid between 2007 and 2014 and for Real between 2005 and 2014.

South American football confederation CONMEBOL said on Monday it is suing American sponsorship partners ISM for $18 million in the continuing fall-out from a world football corruption scandal. “CONMEBOL has opened a process with New York State to cancel its contract with International Soccer Marketing Inc (ISM) for the exclusive management of Copa Libertadores sponsors and is claiming $18 million,” said CONMEBOL in a statement. The move comes after an ISM chief admitted to American prosecutors that the company paid bribes to former CONMEBOL officials to gain the exclusive rights to manage those sponsorship contracts.

CONMEBOL said this would be the first of several cases brought.

When elected in January, CONMEBOL president Alejandro Dominguez said he would be suing companies that benefitted from corruption carried out by his predecessors.