All About Russia - The Host of 2018 World Cup

The 2018 FIFA World Cup is the 21st FIFA World Cup tournament. Russia will be the host of this World Cup. They were awarded the hosting rights on 2 December 2010 after defeating Portugal/Spain and Belgium/Netherlands in the voting. This will be the first time for Russia to held this tournament. This year's World Cup will be held from June 14 to July 15, 2018.

This is the first World Cup to be held in Eastern Europe, and the eleventh time that it has been held in Europe. For the first time the tournament takes place on two continents – Europe and Asia. But, the majority (except one place) of stadium venues are in European Russia in order to keep travel time manageable. At an estimated cost of over $14.2 billion, it is the most expensive World Cup ever.

32 teams will take part in the competition. Russia and 13 national teams would represent European zone (Russia was automatically qualified for the Championship as the host country), five national teams from African zone, and ten from Asia and South America, and three from North American zone. Another two tournament tickets will be decided in play-offs.

A total of 64 matches in this tournament will be held in 11 cities across Russia. Those cities are Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Ekaterinburg, Kazan, Samara, Volgograd, Nizhny Novgorod, Saransk, Rostov-on-Don, Kaliningrad and Sochi. For Moscow, the opening, semi-final, and final match will be held there, at the Luzhniki Stadium.