MOSCOW, March 15. /TASS/. The budget of Zenit St. Petersburg football club is relatively stable standing at an annual figure of between €150 and €170 million ($166.5-189 million) and amounted to €165 million ($183 million) in recent years, Maxim Mitrofanov, the club’s director general, told TASS.

"Zenit’s budget is stable and depending on the season keeps within the limits of €150 and €170 million," Mitrofanov said in an exclusive interview with TASS. "Budget fluctuations are particularly affected by revenues from transfer operations."

Although Russian energy giant is the official general sponsor of the football club from the country’s second largest city, the club has other sources of income earning annually some 60-80 million out of the above-stated sum, according to Mitrofanov.

"This sum includes sponsor deals, income from the club’s participation in various tournaments, television broadcasting sales and from the RFPL [the Russian Football Premier League]," he added.

Football arena in St. Petersburg to cost $10 mln in maintenance annually

According to the official, future maintenance of Zenit Arena, currently under construction in St. Petersburg, will cost annually some 700 million rubles (almost $10 million).

"We have a detailed maintenance project for Zenit Arena," Mitrofanov said in an exclusive interview with TASS. "I can say now that the annual maintenance cost of Zenit Arena will amount to some 700 million rubles."

"This sum includes power supply charges, maintenance of the football field, cleaning and other expenses," he said. "This sum will be spent no matter if matches were played at the arena or it remained idle."

The currently under construction 69,000-seat capacity Zenit Arena is also one of the 12 stadiums in 11 cities across Russia to host the matches of the 2018 FIFA World Cup. The estimated cost of the construction, which began in 2006, stands at 34.9 billion rubles (some $450 million).

Media reports in mid-January alleged that FIFA could deny St. Petersburg the right of hosting the matches of the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup at the Zenit Arena as the construction was delayed.

Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko denied the reports at that time saying in particular that "the issue of relocating the tournament from St. Petersburg is not on the agenda" and later announced that the stadium would be commissioned this year.

The 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup will be held between June 17 and July 2 at four stadiums in Russia and they are Otkritie-Arena in Moscow, Zenit-Arena in St. Petersburg, Fisht in Sochi and Kazan-Arena in Kazan.

Five nations have already qualified for the 2017 Confederations Cup and they are hosts Russia, 2014 FIFA World Cup Champions Germany, 2015 Copa America Champions Chile, 2015 AFC Asian Cup Champion Australia and 2015 CONCACAF Gold Cup winners Mexico.

Three more nations will be determined following the 2016 UEFA Euro Cup, the OFC (Oceania Football Confederation) Nations Cup and 2017 Africa Cup of Nations.