With the 2018 bid victory, Russia will be the first Eastern European country to host the World Cup
ZURICH, Switzerland — Russia made history in December, when FIFA endorsed its bid to host the Football World Cup championship in 2018, thus becoming the first country to be awarded such global football honor in Eastern Europe.
Russia's key contenders in the two-round vote for the 2018 bid were England and the Netherlands-Belgium and Portugal-Spain joint bids. Russia received nine votes in the first round and 13 in the second to clinch a landslide victory that highlighted the country’s prestige and sporting heritage.
The World Cup-2018 matches will be played in 13 cities, whilst at the moment only Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium currently meets FIFA requirements. Russia needs between 300bln-1.5trln rubles (about $10bln-$50bln) to develop all the necessary infrastructure, notably stadiums, hotels and transportation facilities meeting FIFA standards.
Russia seems on track to be the default place to be for key global sporting activities over the next decade, with the World Summer University Summer Games, also known as the the Summer Universiade, slated for Kazan in 2013, the Winter Olympics in Sochi in 2014, FIA Formula One World Championship debuting in the same city in 2014, and crowning it with World Cup football championship, the world’s most popular single sporting activity in 2018.
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