2018 World Cup Venues Announced

World soccer governing body, ed FIFA have announced the 11 cities which will host matches during the 2018 World Cup, anabolics set to be staged in Russia.

The tournament wil comprise of 64 matches and will be staged at 12 different stadiums with Moscow being the only city with two venues selected – those of Luzhniki, and which hosted the 2008 Champions League final, and Spartak.

Sochi, who will stage the 2014 Winter Olympics, St Petersburg, Kaliningrad, Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan, Samara, Saransk, Volgograd, Rostov-on-Don and Ekaterinburg will also host matches. Yaroslavl and Krasnodar missed out on being named host cities after putting in bids.

“The announcement of the host cities is the first concrete step taken in the delivery of the 2018 FIFA World Cup,” FIFA president Sepp Blatter said.

“They make a decisive contribution to the success of the most popular sporting event. We look forward to a productive partnership on our road to the first FIFA World Cup in Eastern Europe.

“We are very pleased with the pace of the 2018 LOC (Local Organising Committee) from day one when they were awarded the hosting of the event in December 2010. Their achievements show their enthusiasm and commitment.”

Vitaly Mutko, Russian minister of sport and chairman of the Russia 2018 LOC, said: “The final selection of the 2018 FIFA World Cup host cities is an important milestone en route to hosting the tournament in 2018.

“This decision launches the full-scale preparation for the FIFA World Cup in the 11 host cities across the country.”

Russia beat England and joint bids from Holland/Belgium and Spain/Portugal in December 2010 for the right to host the World Cup.