Russia announced its intent to bid for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in early 2009, and submitted its request to FIFA in time. Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin had taken a keen interest in the bid and had gone so far as ordering Vitaly Mutko, the Minister of Sports, to "prepare a bid for Russia to hold the 2018 World Cup". According to a report earlier submitted by Vitaly Mutko, who also served that time as President of the Russian Football Union (RFU), the country is ready to spend some $10 billion on the tournament. The bid committee also includes RFU CEO Alexey Sorokin and Alexander Djordjadze as the Director of Bid Planning and Operations. It was part of the wider delegation that presented the application, which also included Igor Shuvalov, Andrey Arshavin, Yelena Isinbayeva, Vyacheslav Koloskov, Nikita Simonyan, Sergei Fursenko, Alexey Smertin, Rinat Dasayev, Roman Abramovich, Anna Netrebko, Valery Gergiev, Natalia Vodianova, as well as the President of Tatarstan, Mintimer Shaimiev, the Head of the Republic of Mordovia, Nikolay Merkushkin, and the Governor of the Nizhny Novgorod Region, Valery Shantsev.
In October 2010, Russia formally pulled out of the race to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup. On December 2, 2010, Russia was chosen as the host country for the 2018 FIFA World Cup. Following the announcement, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin flew to Zurich to personally thank FIFA officials at FIFA headquarters after Russia's successful bid, while President Dmitry Medvedev, who played no visible role in securing the event, celebrated the decision on Twitter.
Fourteen cities are included in the current proposal, which divides them into 6 different clusters: one in the north, centered on St. Petersburg, a central cluster, centered on Moscow, a southern cluster, centered on Sochi, and the Volga River cluster. Only one city beyond the Ural Mountains is cited, Yekaterinburg. The other cities are: Kaliningrad in the north cluster, Rostov-on-Don and Krasnodar in the south cluster and Yaroslavl, Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan, Saransk, Samara and Volgograd in the Volga River cluster. The country does not currently have a stadium with 80,000 capacity, but the bid calls for the expansion of Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, already a UEFA Elite stadium with a capacity of slightly over 78,000, to over 89,000 seats. Russia hopes to have five stadiums fit to host World Cup matches ready by 2013 — two in Moscow and one stadium each in St. Petersburg, Kazan and Sochi, which hosted the 2014 Winter Olympics.
In October 2011, Russia reduced the number of stadiums from 16 to 14. The construction of a proposed stadium in the Moscow region, Podolsk, was cancelled by the regional government, and Spartak Stadium competes with Dinamo Stadium, which was built on 27 November 2018.
Schedule DateNotes15 January 2009 Applications formally invited2 February 2009Closing date for registering intention to bid16 March 2009Deadline to submit completed bid registration forms14 May 2010Deadline for submission of full details of bid16—19 August 2010Inspection committee visits Russia2 December 2010FIFA appoint Russia as host for 2018 World Cup
Venues
Kaliningrad St. PetersburgMoscow Ramenskoe Proposed FIFA World Cup Stadium Gazprom Arena Luzhniki Stadium Spartak Stadium Proposed FIFA World Cup Stadium Capacity: 45,015 Capacity: 69,501 Capacity: 81,318 Capacity: 46,990 Capacity: 44,250 Kazan Nizhny Novgorod Yaroslavl Samara Yekaterinburg Rubin Stadium Nizhny Novgorod Stadium Proposed FIFA World Cup StadiumSolidarnost Arena Central Stadium (Yekaterinburg) Capacity: 45,015 Capacity: 44,899 Capacity: 44,042 Capacity: 44,918 Capacity: 44,130 Volgograd Saransk Krasnodar Rostov-on-Don Sochi Volgograd Arena Mordovia Arena Krasnodar StadiumRostov Arena Fisht Olympic Stadium Capacity: 45,015 Capacity: 45,015 Capacity: 50,015 Capacity: 43,702 Capacity: 47,659
Official Bid Partners Art and Sport foundation IFD Kapital Group of Companies BDO Russia Russian Law Firm Yust
References
External links World Cup Russia 2018