Potemkin neoliberalism: developing Volgograd through the 2018 Men’s World Cup in Russia
Journal: Sport in Society
Year: 2020

This paper investigates the preparations for the 2018 Men’s Football World Cup in Russia through the lens of neoliberal urban entrepreneurialism. Unlike many other mega-events, this World Cup was orchestrated by the central state, though using neoliberal rhetoric to legitimize a wide-ranging urban development program aimed at modernizing peripheral host cities. Grounded in an exploration of urban development in the host city of Volgograd, this paper demonstrates that the intersection of state-le