FIFA World Cup 2018 Russia

The 21st FIFA World Cup is being held in Russia from June 14 to July 15, 2018. This is the first time the World Cup has been held in Russia, although it's been held in many other European countries in the past. The last time was when Germany hosted the 18th FIFA World Cup in 2006. Italy won its fourth World Cup that year, while Spain won its first World Cup at the next tournament in South Africa in 2010. Brazil then hosted the 20th FIFA World Cup in 2014. Brazil was hoping to win a record-breaking sixth World Cup, but the team suffered a shocking 7-1 defeat to Germany in their semi-final match and didn't even reach the final. Germany then went on to win their fourth World Cup by defeating Argentina in the final. Even though the Russian team will be trying their best to win the World Cup for all their passionate fans, football experts say their chances of winning this time are very small. Most are predicting that the winners will be either Germany, Brazil, France or Spain.

Above right: Logo © 2018 FIFA

Bids, Host Cities and Stadiums

In 2010, FIFA announced that Russia had won the right to host the 2018 World Cup. They'd defeated bids by Portugal, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands and England. The English Football Association accused the Russians of bribing FIFA officials to vote for the Russian bid, but an official investigation in 2014 found no evidence of bribery by the Russians. After being cleared of these accusations, Russia could begin work on their preparations. They built training camps, or base camps, for the 32 national teams that had qualified. They also built or renovated twelve stadiums in which the tournament's 64 matches would be held. The biggest is Moscow's Luzhniki Stadium where seven matches are scheduled to be held, including the opening match on June 14 and the World Cup Final on July 15. Others include Spartak Stadium, also in Moscow, and stadiums in these ten additional Russian cities:

• Kaliningrad
• Kazan
• Nizhny Novgorod
• Rostov-on-Don
• Saint Petersburg
• Samara
• Saransk
• Sochi
• Volgograd
• Yekaterinburg

Qualification

The national teams of 210 countries competed to qualify for one of 32 places available in the 2018 World Cup finals. Host nations always get in automatically so the Russian team didn't have to qualify, but the other teams had to earn a place by competing against all the other countries in their region. There were six regional qualification tournaments held between 2015 and 2017 for countries in Europe, Africa, Asia, Oceania, North and Central America, and South America. Most of the countries that were expected to qualify did so, but there were some big surprises. Four-time World Cup winners Italy didn't qualify, and nor did three-time runners-up the Netherlands. Many people were also surprised when Cameroon, Chile, Ghana, Ivory Coast and the USA failed to qualify. Meanwhile, the people of Iceland and Panama were very excited to see their own teams progress through their qualifying tournaments and make it into the World Cup finals for the first time.

Mascot

The official mascot of the 2018 FIFA World Cup is a wolf called Zabivaka which means "the scorer". Even though Zabivaka was competing against many others, he became the official mascot by getting the most votes from members of the general public. He was created by graphic design student Ekaterina Bocharova who said Zabivaka is "fluffy and has kind eyes" like her own pet dog. In the past mascots were usually chosen by FIFA-appointed committees, but this time the organizers decided a democratic vote would be best as they wanted to make sure the most popular mascot was chosen.

Watching the 2018 World Cup

FIFA sold the rights to broadcast the 2018 World Cup tournament to media companies all over the world. In some countries matches are being broadcast on free-to-air TV, while in other countries media companies are charging people money to watch the matches on cable TV or via streaming apps on mobile phones, tablets, game consoles, etc. But however they're watching, huge numbers of people from all over the world will be enjoying the same spectacle and experiencing similar feelings like suspense, excitement, shock or joy at exactly the same moment, making the World Cup one of 2018's most unifying global events.