It’s the eve of the World Cup 2018 with the eyes of the globe turning towards Russia.
It promises to be an action-packed, drama-filled month as 736 players from 32 nations arrive for a feast of football. Brazil, Spain and Germany arrive as tournament favourites with Gareth Southgate's England heading in with plenty of hope if not much expectation. They face Tunisia in Volgograd on Monday before taking on Panama and Belgium in Group G.
The Three Lions are settling in in Repino having arrived yesterday, with the tournament kicking off in earnest on Thursday afternoon when the hosts face Saudi Arabia.
We will have all the latest news, views, pictures and video direct from Russia throughout the day as we build up to the biggest football tournament in the world.
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The United States, Canada and Mexico have won the right to host the 2026 World Cup after a vote of Fifa delegates in Moscow.
A joint bid by the three North American countries under the name ’United’ saw off the challenge of a rival proposal from Morocco, winning over two-thirds of the vote.
The United bid persuaded 134 of the 203 delegates eligible to vote at the 68th annual Fifa congress, which was held on the eve of the 2018 tournament in Russia.
Morocco hoped to become the second African nation to host the tournament but earned just 65 votes on Wednesday and suffered defeat in a World Cup bidding process for the fifth time. One delegate, representing Iran, voted ‘none of the above’.
World Cup 2018 official kits 51 show all World Cup 2018 official kits 1/51 World Cup 2018 kits The kits for the 2018 World Cup have started to be released ... but which one is your favourite? Getty 2/51 Russia home They say: A clean design in red and white, inspired by the 1988 USSR jersey.
Our verdict: Literally cannot muster up the enthusiasm to write anymore words about this snorefest. Adidas 3/51 Russia away They say: A smart strip in white and blue with subtle geometric pattern.
Our verdict: Now that’s more like it! Big mistake not making this the home kit in our ever so humble opinion. Adidas 4/51 Saudi Arabia home and away Both home and away kits yet to be released. Will be supplied by Nike. Will probably feature a bit of green. AFP/Getty Images 5/51 Egypt home They say: A ‘sleek and modern’ kit with sublimated check pattern on the front and white Adidas strips down the sides.
Our verdict: Decent. Would make a nice Manchester United kit. Adidas 6/51 Uruguay home They say: A clean design in ‘silver lake blue’, with an ‘engineered jacquard graphic’ in the middle of the jersey.
Our verdict: What’s Spanish for ‘horrific v neck’? Puma 7/51 Portugal home They say: The red base from Portugal’s Euro 2016 triumph is retained, with Nike introducing ‘gold-metallic trim’ and a green collar.
Our verdict: Yup, it’s a template. But that doesn’t stop it from looking smart. Nike 8/51 Portugal away They say: An all-white design inspired by the country’s naval history.
Our verdict: Cleaner than Kim Woodburn’s kitchen. Lovely stuff. Nike 9/51 Spain home They say: Made by Adidas and inspired by the classic 1994 home strip.
Our verdict: GET IT ON MY TORSO NOW. Getty Images 10/51 Spain away They say: Another 1980s inspired kit. ‘Halo blue’ with bright orange trim.
Our verdict: It’s … okay. Not a patch on that smashing home effort, mind. Adidas 11/51 Morocco home and away Both kits, to be produced by Adidas, are yet to be released. Valery Sharifulin/TASS 12/51 Iran home and away Same again – to be produced by Adidas but yet to be released. Hurry up lads! Getty Images 13/51 France home They say: A traditional look with blue jersey, white shorts and red socks.
Our verdict: Another template. Another sexy kit. Damn you, Nike! Nike 14/51 France away They say: White shirt, blue sleeves and white socks – with a distinct graphic print.
Our verdict: Why couldn’t Nike have given this to England?! As smooth as Zinedine Zidane’s shiny bald head. Nike 15/51 Australia home and away Move along, nothing to see here. Nike’s Aussie kits are yet to be released. Getty 16/51 Peru home They say: The last ever Umbro kit for the country – Marathon Sports take over next year.
Our verdict: You don’t get more traditional than this. A proper football kit for proper football men. You can shove your xG up your a***, etc. Umbro 17/51 Denmark home and away Yet to be released. But they’re to be manufactured by Hummel. So they’re bound to be good. Action Plus via Getty Images 18/51 Argentina home They say: A classic effort that draws inspiration from the 1993 Copa America strip, coincidentally the last time Argentina won a major title.
Our verdict: A stylish strip befitting of little Leo Messi. Top drawer. Adidas 19/51 Argentina away They say: Black jerseys with neat white and blue trim, white shorts, black socks.
Our verdict: Woof. Coming to a five-a-side court near you very soon. Adidas 20/51 Iceland home They say: An Errea produced kit which incorporates the traditional home colours of blue, red and white.
Our verdict: Nice, if a little bit bargain basement. Errea 21/51 Iceland away They say: The reverse of the home shirt.
Our verdict: Yes, we can confirm that this is the exact reverse of the home shirt. Errea 22/51 Croatia home They say: Nike offer a new interpretation of the team’s iconic checker design, with much larger checks than usual.
Our verdict: Will look great on Luka Modric if he can keep himself out of prison long enough to wear it. 23/51 Croatia away They say: The same template as the home shirt, but with a black and dark blue colour scheme.
Our verdict: Very, very nice. A slightly gothic interpretation of the home shirt we all know and love. The football kit equivalent of Late Night Hollyoaks. 24/51 Nigeria home They say: An eclectic combination of bright green, white and black in an especially bold design.
Our verdict: Outstanding. Sensational. Sublime. The nicest kit at this year’s World Cup and destined to be worn at Boiler Room sessions from now until 2046. Nike 25/51 Nigeria away They say: A clean design in dark green with subtle zigzag print.
Our verdict: Oh dear, clearly Nike used all their budget on the home shirt. About as exciting as a Songs of Praise marathon. Nike 26/51 They say: A traditional effort with subtle zigzag pattern.
Our verdict: Why change a winning formula? Bright, bold and very much Brazil. Nike 27/51 Brazil away They say: Based on the same design as the home shirt. Royal blue with a unique star pattern covering the front.
Our verdict: Yeah, fine, okay. Nike 28/51 Switzerland home and away Not released yet, soz. Getty 29/51 Costa Rica home and away The bad news: the kits haven’t been released yet. The good news: they’re being made by New Balance, so will be peng. Getty Images 30/51 Serbia away They say: White with red trim, with the nation’s flag running down the centre.
Our verdict: Very difficult to criticise. But we'll have a go: the collar is a bit naff. Other than that, no complaints. Now be on your way, Serbia away. Puma 31/51 Germany home They say: White, black and inspired by the iconic 1990 strip.
Our verdict: You’ve already seen this, and you already love it. If only it featured the colours of the German flag, though… Adidas 32/51 Germany away They say: The first green German jersey since Euro 2012, inspired by the 1994 away effort.
Our verdict: It's Adidas. It's green. It's great. Let me wear you, Germany away. Adidas 33/51 Mexico home They say: Manufactured by Adidas, featuring the country’s traditional green colour with white applications.
Our verdict: Yum. Adidas 34/51 Mexico away They say: Draws inspiration from Mexico’s kits of the 1950s. White with a green, white and red chest stripe.
Our verdict: Looks a bit like something Roger Federer would wear to win the Australian Open. And we’re very much okay with that. Adidas 35/51 Sweden home They say: The traditional yellow and blue, with a subtle jacquard pattern on the front.
Our verdict: Nothing to write home about, to be honest. Unless you’re writing the solitary word ‘BORING’, that is. Adidas 36/51 Sweden away They say: Adidas claim the away kit features ‘a sleek design in blue and yellow’.
Our verdict: That subtle pattern is very nice. One of the better ‘plain Jane’ kits to be worn in Russia. Adidas 37/51 South Korea home They say: A classic red design with dark blue shorts and red socks.
Our verdict: Boring. Plain. Routine. Run-of-the-mill. Humdrum, Dreary. Banal. Unoriginal. Spiritless. Insipid. Etc. Nike 38/51 South Korea away They say: Predominantly white, with a bold blue and red graphic print subtly inspired by a tiger pattern and the Taegeuk symbol.
Our verdict: Much better, although it does look a bit like a crayon wielding toddler has been let loose on the new England shirt. Which nevertheless remains a huge improvement. Nike 39/51 Belgium home They say: A bold design that takes inspiration from the iconic 1984 top.
Our verdict: Cracking. Atones for those atrocious Burrda efforts they’ve been palmed off with at the last few tournaments. Adidas 40/51 Belgium away They say: Yellow and black with a slight all-over graphic print.
Our verdict: Yet another sublime Adidas away kit. *Wolfwhistles* Adidas 41/51 Panama home and away Yet to be released. AFP/Getty Images 42/51 Tunisia home They say: White with red crew-neck collar and cuffs, and a dotted gradient graphic.
Our verdict: If this football shirt was a British sporting personality, it would be Steve Davis. Uhlsport 43/51 Tunisia away They say: The Tunisia 2018 World Cup away shirt is red with white details.
Our verdict: If this football shirt was a British sporting personality, it would be Steve Davis. Uhlsport 44/51 England home They say: Manufactured by Nike, with a white base with blue for logos and a modern knit pattern on the front.
Our verdict: About as inspiring as Iain Duncan Smith. This country really is going to the dogs. Nike 45/51 England away They say: Red all over with a subtle St George’s Cross motif across the front.
Our verdict: It’s red. It has a bit of a pattern thing going on across the front. We’ve already forgotten about it. Next. Nike 46/51 Poland home and away To be made by Nike, but yet to be released. Getty 47/51 Senegal home and away To be made by Puma, but yet to be released. IT'S TOO LATE FOR OUR POLL NOW, SENEGAL. Getty 48/51 Colombia home They say: Produced by Adidas with a traditional colour scheme, inspired by the iconic home shirts worn in the 1970s and 80s.
Our verdict: Yessssssss. If it’s good enough for James Rodriguez it’s good enough for us. Adidas 49/51 Colombia away They say: Predominantly royal blue, with bright orange trim and a jazzy pattern down one side of the shirt.
Our verdict: Very solid. Colombia right up there with Germany for the best pair of shirts in the business. Adidas 50/51 Japan home They say: According to Adidas: ‘the shirt’s bespoke look and graphic takes inspiration from traditional samurai armour’.
Our verdict: Really lovely kit. Deserves better than the inevitable group stage exit. Adidas 51/51 Japan away They say: An understated all-white kit with subtle grey trim.
Our verdict: Adidas deliver a top-draw kit yet again. A lovely way to round off the gallery. Thanks for reading! Adidas
2026 will therefore see the World Cup return to North America for the first time since 1994, when the United States hosted alone. Mexico has staged the World Cup twice previously, in 1970 and 1986, while Canada hosted the Women’s World Cup in 2015.
The 2026 tournament will also be the second World Cup hosted in more than one country, following Japan and South Korea’s joint effort in 2002. Canada and Mexico will stage just 10 games each, however. The United States will host 60 matches in total, including all games from the quarter-finals onwards.
Carlos Cordeiro, the president of US Soccer and one of the United bid’s figureheads, told the Fifa congress: “It’s a bit emotional for us today. Thank you so, so very much for this incredible honour. Thank you for entrusting us with the privilege of hosting the FIFA World Cup in 2026.
“The beautiful game transcends borders and cultures. Football today is the only victor. And in that spirit we wish all Russian hosts and all the teams competing here the very best of luck.”
The United bid was considered the front-runner from the start of the process in 2017 and expects its tournament to generate approximately $14bn (£10.3bn) in revenue, including an $11bn (£8.1bn) profit for Fifa. This year’s World Cup in Russia, by comparison, expects a turnover of $6.1bn (£4.58bn).
Morocco’s 2026 proposal gained momentum as the process went on but logistical concerns regarding stadiums, accommodation and transportation hung over the bid from the start.
Fifa’s inspection task force rated hosting a World Cup in Morocco as “high risk” last month, awarding the country a rating of 2.7 out of 5. The North American bid, meanwhile, received a score of 4 out of 5 and was deemed to be a low risk proposal. Delegates at Wednesday’s congress were reminded of the findings by Fifa’s general secretary Fatma Samoura shortly before voting commenced.
Fouzi Lekjaa, the president of the Royal Moroccan Football Federation, vowed that the country would not give up on its ‘dream’ of a Moroccan World Cup. This latest failed bid followed others for the 1994, 1998, 2006 and 2010 tournaments.
“I wish to congratulate Fifa for the conduct of this process and congratulate the president for what he has done in order to move things towards more transparency and more inclusion,” he said.
“I would like to reaffirm the determination of my country to continue to work for football and realise one day our dream to host the World Cup in Morocco.”
Donald Trump’s policy on immigration, including his promise to build a wall along the US-Mexico border, made a joint bid involving the two countries politically sensitive. In April, the US president’s veiled threat towards countries who might vote against the bid led Fifa to refer to guidelines on political interference.
Trump congratulated the United bid on securing the tournament via social media. “The U.S., together with Mexico and Canada, just got the World Cup. Congratulations – a great deal of hard work,” he tweeted.
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The Russia World Cup 2018 is just hours away and the excitement is palpable. The teams are arriving, England have posed for their send-off picture and the first whistle is only days away.
Here's our guide on how to watch every second of the action. From this Thursday, we will be in for a feast of pretty much non-stop football.
Last December's draw put England in Group G with Belgium, Tunisia and Panama and the good news is that all three of the games have been scheduled at sociable times. You can hear the sighs of relief from office bosses all around the country.
The full World Cup 2018 fixture schedule is included below, with timings, venues and TV channels included.
All times BST. Local times are BST +2 apart from games played in Kaliningrad (+1), Samara (+3) and Ekaterinburg (+4).
Group stages
Thursday 14 June
Russia vs Saudi Arabia (Group A) - Moscow (Luzhniki) - 4pm - ITV
Friday 15 June
Egypt vs Uruguay (Group A) - Ekaterinburg - 1pm - BBC
Morocco vs Iran (Group B) - St Petersburg - 4pm - ITV
Portugal vs Spain (Group B) - Sochi - 7pm - BBC
Saturday 16 June
France vs Australia (Group C) - Kazan - 11am - BBC
The Russian prazdnik – celebration – must not be ruined at any price as hosts prepare to give enemies five-star treatment
'We're just trying to survive it': Russian cities brace for World Cup
'We're just trying to survive it': Russian cities brace for World Cup
On a riverboat between the World Cup cities of Kazan and Samara last month, a Russian couple in their 50s asked earnestly whether “all these rumours” about Moscow’s poisoning of Sergei Skripal could lead the west to boycott or cancel the tournament.
“Russians don’t surrender to pressure like that, we push back hard,” said Yevgeny Prigov, a hefty businessman who trades in machine parts, echoing a popular Russian cliche.
Their belief, summarised, was that the west wants to see Russia fall on its face when it hosts the World Cup this month, and that Russia would pull it off in spite of its guests.
It’s a bit like inviting your enemies over for dinner: the best revenge is a five-star meal.
“This is supposed to be a prazdnik,” or celebration, said his wife, Maria, sipping a lager. “And that’s what we’re going to give them.”
For the defiant World Cup hosts, this month’s celebration of football comes amid its worst relations with the west since the cold war, after the annexation of Crimea, accusations of interfering in US elections, and the recent nerve agent attack in Salisbury.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Fifa’s president Gianni Infantino with Russian Vladimir Putin. Photograph: Felipe Trueba/EPA
There was a time when Russia saw prestige sporting competitions like the World Cup or the Olympics as an occasion to woo the west and seek acceptance into a club of great nations. Russia still paid lip service to detente when it was awarded the tournament in 2010, and championed a reset with the US under its liberal-ish president Dmitry Medvedev.
But forget about rehabilitating Vladimir Putin through sport now.
“Russia is so toxic that the Mundial [World Cup] can’t help Putin to change anything, including his image,” said Andrei Kolesnikov, a political analyst and senior fellow at the Carnegie Moscow Centre.
Not that anyone here much cares. Defiance to the west has been enshrined in public policy and the national media since Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea, with officials wearing western sanctions as a badge of respect.
'Much nicer than expected': World Cup fans size up modern Moscow Read more
On national television last week, Putin said that the main reason he had not sacked Vitaly Mutko, the disgraced former sports minister, was because the west wanted him out.
“We know what kind of attack was made against him in connection with the doping scandal,” Putin said. “Under those kinds of circumstances, it is not possible to have him retire.”
The main intrigue of Russia’s World Cup will likely be how Russia’s regional cities cope with the influx of tens of thousands of fans, many of them seeing foreign tourists on this scale for the first time in their history. Security will be extreme.
The rule with prazdniki is that they mustn’t be spoiled, not by protests, provocations, faulty planning or poor security.
“The best [Putin] can do in terms of soft power is to properly organise the championship without unpleasant episodes, especially in the security sphere, and get some pure pleasure from sports,” said Kolesnikov.
Gay rights abuses, war crimes and World Cup fever – it’s an ugly mix | Peter Tatchell Read more
Russian officials still bristle when they recall gleeful foreign coverage of a “double toilet”, two commodes in a single stall, at the Biathlon centre ahead of the 2014 Sochi Olympics. To the west, it was a symbol of slapdash planning or official corruption. To Russia, it was a construction mistake blown out of proportion.
A person close to the Kremlin said that the Russian leader played up the geopolitical nature of the Olympics to justify the criticism over massive expenditures, a reported $50bn, to remake the Black Sea city of Sochi.
“There were a lot of questions about why it was costing so much, so he came out and said it’s about promoting Russian values and developed a narrative behind it,” the person said.
By contrast, the World Cup, costing an estimated $14bn across 11 cities according to the respected RBC business daily, has kicked up less fuss. Among the reasons? The country’s main opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, who publicises reports on official corruption, was sentenced to 30 days in jail last month, and will only be let out after the opening day of the tournament.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Mohamed Salah poses with the Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov in Grozny. Photograph: Karim Jaafar/AFP/Getty Images
Regionally, it’s a moment for leaders across Russia to preen. Down in Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov has already secured his photo op with Mo Salah, the world’s most famous Muslim footballer, as he leverages the World Cup in his push to be Putin’s envoy to the Middle East. Kadyrov reportedly had the Liverpool star summoned from his hotel, where he was asleep, for the meet-and-greet on the Grozny pitch.
In regions across Russia, local officials have gladly taken the money offered for new stadiums and urban development, while also gritting their teeth for the daunting prospect of ensuring an incident-free tournament.
“Where are you from?” growled the governor of Volgograd, a veteran of the first Chechen war, when I asked him about fan safety ahead of last month’s Russian Cup finals between FC Tosno and FC Avangard Kursk. “I assure you we are taking every possible precaution to ensure their safety.”
It wasn’t an overstatement. The city has closed streets and shut public transport for several kilometres around the stadium during games. The security measures and other preparations are so extensive that match days have been declared public holidays because no one can get to work.
Robbie Williams to perform at World Cup opening ceremony Read more
Residents in one apartment block in Yekaterinburg have been told not to use their balconies, open their windows or stand near their windows on match days, in case they’re mistaken for attackers and shot by police snipers, Reuters reported.
“To be honest we’re just trying to survive it,” Olga Khavanskaya, a schoolteacher, told me in Volgograd during the city’s Victory Day parade. “There’s this feeling like the city has been ripped up from the ground and flipped over. The city looks better than I can ever recall … but I’m ready for it all to be over.”
Even the hooligans are under lock and key. “We’ve pretty much been sidelined,” Kostya, a member of a CSKA firm, told me in a Moscow pub recently.
It’s a tightrope walk, a vast balancing act across 11 cities, and your greatest rivals have front-row seats. Perhaps deep down, the Kremlin may still hope that a successful tournament will earn recognition. But the real concern is not screwing up. So don’t ruin the prazdnik.
