Press release on the results of the FIFA World Cup Russia – 2018

The 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia ended on July 15, 2018 with final clash between Croatia and France which took place at Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium. The French team hammered the Croatian team 4:2 in the match to grab its second World Cup Trophy.

The Russian national football team reached the quarterfinals stage of this world championship, where Croatia edged them out in a 4:2 penalty shootout on July 7 at the Fisht Arena in Sochi.

FIFA and the Russia-2018 organizing committee summed up the tournament’s results shortly before the final match and came to the conclusion that the recent World Cup was the best in its history.

"A couple of years ago, I said this would be the best World Cup ever. Today, I can say it with a new conviction. It is the best World Cup ever," FIFA President G.Infantino told at the news conference in Moscow.

The FIFA World Cup hosted by Russia has been a success and its best achievement is that anti-Russian myths and prejudice collapsed, Russian President Vladimir Putin said opening a gala concert at the Bolshoi Theatre on July 14, 2018.

He also noted: "Russia was getting ready for the championship substantially and responsibly, and we are sincerely happy that it has been a success and has united millions of people globally around football. Our efforts have been praised by athletes, who were offered the best conditions for showing their best potential, and by the media, since the staff of the championship’s eleven media centers were working around the clock to help them, and certainly, by the fans".

Overall, the attendance of 98% at stadiums was a pleasant surprise, 3 million tickets for the World Cup were sold or distributed in different ways. High attendance records were set at the FIFA Fan Fest sites as well. Those festivals were visited by more than 7 million people, which is more than during the World Cup in Brazil in 2014. Russia has seen an unprecedented inflow of tourists, more than 1 million foreigners visited the country in about a month. The number of fans fr om the Latin America visiting Russia exceeded the number of the European guests. Over four billion people have watched this World Cup.

The FIFA World Cup, the first-ever hosted by Russia, was held in 11 Russian cities - Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod, Saransk, Kaliningrad, Volgograd, Yekaterinburg, Samara, Sochi and Rostov-on-Don at twelve newly built and reconstructed stadiums.

During the tournament, airports have served 15 million passengers. As far as free trains are concerned, they transported more than 300,000 people to eleven cities of the championship and were 70% loaded on average.

Furthermore, in accordance with the unanimous opinion of the FIFA President G.Infantino, numerous fans and guests of the championship, football players and independent football experts, Russia has become a real football country, a country where football is not only the World Cup, which is organized at an excellent level but wh ere football has become a part of the country's culture.

Stadiums, airports, roads, hotels have created a powerful impetus for developing sport and tourism in the country both for the Russian citizens and for the foreign guests.

On July 14, 2018 the President of Russia Vladimir Putin in the presence of FIFA President G.Infantino handed over a red and white football with the 2018 World Cup logo to the Emir of Qatar Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the country that will host the next World Cup, between November 21 and December 18, 2022.

The Embassy of the Russian Federation
in the Republic of Botswana