On preparations for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia

FIFA World Cup will be held in Russia from June, 14 till July 15, 2018. Football matches are to take place in eleven Russian cities: Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kazan, Sochi, Saransk, Volgograd, Rostov-na-Donu, Samara, Kaliningrad, Ekaterinburg and Nizhni Novgorod. Every team-participant will be provided with three training grounds at every stadium, places for residence and exercises, located both in cities-organizers and in other regions of the European part of Russia.

In total 64 matches will be played during the Championship. Since the qualifying tournament was completed in November, 2017, all 32 teams-participants of the FIFA World Cup (the Russian national team participates by rights of country-organizer) were designated.

On December 1, 2017 the State Kremlin Palace in Moscow hosted the ceremony of the Final Draw for the FIFA World Cup which was attended by the President of the Russian Federation V.V.Putin and the president of FIFA G.Infantino. The world football stars were also in the picture. Following the results of the Final Draw, national teams were divided into 8 groups (4 teams in every group).

As part of transport infrastructure development, motorways, bridges, traffic intersections, stations and parking zones are being constructed and reconstructed. The organizers actively upgrade public transport and improve airports facilities in the hosting cities.

Everyone who wishes to visit the FIFA World Cup in Russia can receive the "Fan ID". It is a personalised document which affords ground for spectators of all categories to access the stadiums. With Fan ID foreigners will have the right to enter Russia without visas during the time period which starts ten days prior to the first football match and ends in ten days after the last match of tournament. Moreover, Fan ID entitles its owner to use different modes of transport for travel within the cities-organizers and between them free of charge. All necessary information about Fan ID, including the application, its reception and delivery, can be found on the website www.fan-id.ru. Rules and principles of fans free travel system are easy to find on website: https://tickets.transport2018.com/.

All visitors of the FIFA World Cup in Russia have opportunity to choose and book rooms in hotels independently through all accessible sale channels, including:

– FIFA website: http://hotels.FIFA.com;

– official tourist portal of the Organizing Committee http://welcome2018.com;

– authorised FIFA accommodation operator – «MATCH Accommodation» (telephone number in Moscow, Russia +7 499 658 2010);

– other Russian and international systems of online hotels booking, as well as in hotels directly.

The tournament's booking program is implemented by FIFA exclusively. Sales of tickets for the FIFA World Cup in Russia started on September 14, 2017. The detailed information on requests initiation, tickets products and sales stages can be found on FIFA website http://www.fifa.com. Besides, it is possible to consult the support service of the FIFA World Cup Tickets Centre through the hotline: +7(495) 787 20 18 for residents of the Russian Federation or + 4(144) 563 20 18 for foreign nationals.

For the FIFA World Cup fans the Organizing Committee launched the tourist internet portal welcome2018.com with a lot of useful and comprehensive information about the tournament and cities-organizers.

The FIFA World Cup is a global holiday of football which is anticipated by millions fans worldwide. In this respect the provision of high quality services is one of the key objectives of the tournament organisation in Russia.

Embassy of Russia in Botswana