The success of the FINA World Championships was thanks to the Hungarian people coming together to ensure it ran smoothly, a government official has said.
Balázs Fürjes, Government Commissioner for Major Budapest Developments, said the event's triumph was not the success of the government, but the shared success of Budapest and Hungary which reinforced the self-confidence, self-esteem and cohesion of the Hungarian people which brought the nation together.
“We worked day and night in order to make Budapest and Hungary a worthy host of the world’s third largest sporting event. Our goal was to turn this event into the best World Aquatic Championships of all time," Fürjes told MTI.
He took the view that “it is not the success of a single individual or the government, but our shared success, the success of the Hungarian people, Budapest and Hungary."
Regarding the costs of the World Aquatic Championships, he pointed out that only those items and expenditures can be classified into this category which were solely incurred on account of the sporting event, and which solely served the purposes of the Championships.
“Everything else that was otherwise necessary and useful, and improves the lives of the people of Budapest in the long run would have been implemented anyway; these therefore cannot be included in the expenditures of the World Aquatic Championships. Consequently, the actual expenditures of the World Aquatic Championships are the costs of the opening and closing ceremonies, organization and the temporary structures and facilities, and nothing else," he said.
Total expenditures of the temporary projects and developments amounted to 7.8 billion HUF, while the operating and organizational expenditures amounted to 38.6 billion HUF.
Fürjes is convinced that had Budapest reached the awarding of the Olympic Games in Lima, it would have been awarded the right to host the 2024 or 2028 Olympic Games. Reflected in the success of the FINA event.