No other sporting event captures the world's imagination like the FIFA World Cup™. Ever since the first tentative competition in Uruguay in 1930, FIFA's flagship has constantly grown in popularity and prestige. The 2014 FIFA World Cup™ held in Brazil reached 3.2 billion viewers, and over One billion people watched the final match.
The 2018 FIFA World Cup will be the 21st FIFA World Cup tournament, contested by the men's national teams of the member nations of FIFA. It is scheduled to take place in Russia from 14 June to 15 July 2018. This will be the first World Cup held in Europe since 2006; all but one of the stadium venues are in European Russia. The final tournament will involve 32 national teams, which include 31 teams determined via qualifying competitions and the automatically qualified host team. A total of 64 matches will be played in 12 venues located in 11 cities. The final will take place on 15 July in Moscow at the Luzhniki Stadium.
Zabivaka™ : The one who scores
Since 1966 Mascots have played a key role during FIFA World Cup tournaments, acting as the ambassador of the host country. The mascot is the face of the tournament both locally and internationally with characteristics that showcase an element of the host country. Over 1 million voters in Russia voted to choose Zabivaka the fox as the official FIFA 2018 World Cup Mascot.
