Having been divided into four geographical clusters, the Host Cities of the 2018 FIFA World Cup have been announced as follows: Moscow, the only city with two stadiums, namely Luzhniki and Spartak (central cluster); St. Petersburg and Kaliningrad (Northern cluster); Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan, Samara, Saransk and Volgograd (Volga cluster); Rostov-on-Don and Sochi (Southern cluster) as well as Ekaterinburg.

The FIFA Executive Committee had approved the venues at its meeting on Friday, 28 September 2012, in Zurich. The decision on the general match schedule will be taken at a later date.

The early announcement of the 2018 FIFA World Cup Host Cities almost six years ahead of the event is a positive move as it allows the host country stakeholders to make a start on preparing the infrastructure to accommodate the football fans who will flock into Russia in 2018.

The huge level of anticipation for 2018 was expressed by each Host City as they unveiled their poster at the same time as the announcement, the first time in FIFA history this has been done. To see all the posters and the city profiles please visit the official Russia 2018 website.

Among the guests were Russian Minister of Sport and chairman of the Russia 2018 Local Organising Committee (LOC), Vitaly Mutko, and FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter, FIFA Secretary General Jérôme Valcke, LOC CEO Alexey Sorokin, Russia’s national team coach Fabio Capello, as well as Brazil’s FIFA World Cup™ champion Roberto Carlos.