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By Eyo Nse, As the 2018 world cup builds up, here are some facts you need to know about the world most popular football tournament which will be hosted and held in Russia from June 14 to July 15 2018, as compiled by Brainnews Radio.
The facts are;
1. 2 December, 2010 Russia, for the first time in its history, was granted the right to host the FIFA World Cup. The finals of the tournament will be held from June 14 to July 15, 2018.
2. 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.
3. The FIFA Cup matches will be held in 11 cities: Moscow (this city will host the finals of the cup)
–Saint Petersburg
Ekaterinburg Kazan Samara Volgograd
Nizhny Novgorod
Saransk
Rostov-on-Don
Kaliningrad
Sochi
4. From 17 June to 2 July, 2017 Russia will host another FIFA tournament– the Confederations Cup. 8 teams will participate: Russia as a host country of the 2018 FIFA World Cup, Germany as the current world champion, Australia as the winner of the 2015 Asia Cup, Chile as the winner of the 2015 Copa America, Mexica as the
winner of play-off match between the winners
of the 2013 and 2015 Golden CONCACAF Cup,
New Zealand as the winner of the 2016 OFC
Nations Cup and Portugal as the current
champion of Europe. Another participating
country will be determined only on February 5,
2017; it will be the national team who wins the
African Cup of Nations.
5. The matches of Confederation Cup will be
held on the stadiums of four cities. Kazan and
Sochi will host semi-finals, Spartak Stadium in
Moscow will host the semi-final for the third
place match, and Saint Petersburg will host the
first semi-final and final match of the cup.
6. In October of 2014 the FIFA unvelined the
brand identity of the World Cup and its official
emblem, designed in a form of the principal
trophy – the world cup. The principal theme of
the World Cup Russia is a dream and the cosmic
outer space exploration, enlivened with folk
motives featuring Firebirds, Matryoshkas and
folk patterns.
7. Wolf Zabivaka™ designed by student
Ekaterina Bocharova won the right to be the
2018 World Cup mascot. The main symbol of the
tournament was chosen via online voting.
8. Volunteers will be assisting in the process of
managing and hosting the FIFA World Cup and
the Confederations Cup. They will receive
special training for 20 functional directions. The
organizers plan to include over 5 thousand
people for hosting the FIFA Confederations Cup
2017 and about 15 thousand people in the 2018
FIFA World Cup. About 20 thousand volunteers
will take part in the program entitled City
Volunteers.
9. The 2018 FIFA World Cup and each host city
will be represented by elected ambassadors –
famous people who were either born in those
cities, or are somehow related to them. The
ambassadors of the World Cup promote sports
and healthy lifestyle and promote the 2018 FIFA
World Cup.
10. Apart from football matches, guests will also
be able to visit FIFA Fan Fests – special events
organized by FIFA. These are officially dedicated
areas to watch Confederations Cup 2017
matches, where everyone unable to come to
the stadium is welcome to join the fun. This is
the perfect way to safely and conveniently
watch live coverage of the games between the
best teams in the world.
11. The 2018 FIFA World Cup will be the 21st FIFA
World Cup, a quadrennial international football
tournament contested by the men’s national
teams of the member associations of FIFA.
12.It is scheduled to take place in Russia from 14
June to 15 July 2018, after the country was
awarded the hosting rights on 2 December 2010.
This will be the first World Cup held in Europe
since the 2006 tournament in Germany; all but
one of the stadium venues are in European
Russia, west of the Ural Mountains, to keep
travel time manageable.
The final tournament will involve 32 national
teams, which include 31 teams determined
through qualifying competitions and the
automatically qualified host team. Of the 32
teams, 20 will be making back-to-back
appearances following the last tournament in
2014, including defending champions Germany,
while Iceland and Panama will both be making
their first appearances at a FIFA World Cup. A
total of 64 matches will be played in 12 venues
located in 11 cities. The final will take place on 15
July at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow.
The winners of the World Cup will qualify for
the 2021 FIFA Confederations Cup.
13. The draw was held on 1 December 2017, at
18:00 MSK, at the State Kremlin Palace in
Moscow. The 32 teams were drawn into eight
groups of four.
For the draw, the teams were allocated to four
pots based on the FIFA World Rankings of
October 2017. Pot 1 contained the hosts Russia
(who were automatically assigned to Position
A1) and the best seven teams, Pot 2 contained
the next best eight teams, and so on for Pots 3
and 4. This was different from previous draws,
where only Pot 1 was based on FIFA Rankings
while the remaining pots were based on
geographical considerations. However, still
retained was the fact that teams from the same
confederation were not drawn against each
other for the group stage, except for UEFA
where each group contained up to two teams.
14. On 16 March 2018, the FIFA Council approved
the use of video assistant referees (VAR) for the
first time in a FIFA World Cup tournament.
On 29 March 2018, FIFA released the list of 36
referees and 63 assistant referees selected to
oversee matches.
15. Each team must first name a preliminary
squad of 30 players. From the preliminary
squad, the team must name a final squad of 23
players (three of whom must be goalkeepers)
by the FIFA deadline. Players in the final squad
may be replaced due to serious injury up to 24
hours prior to kickoff of the team’s first match,
where the replacement players do not need to
be in the preliminary squad.
For players named in the 30-player preliminary
squad, there is a mandatory rest period
between 21 and 27 May 2018, except for those
involved in the 2018 UEFA Champions League
Final played on 26 May.
In February 2018, it was announced that the
number of players to be named in the
provisional squads would be increased from 30
to 35
https://www.brainnewsradio.com/15-facts-about-the-2018-fifa-world-cup-in-russia/
