Fil draw for World Cup in Russia to be held in Kremlin

Moscow, Jan 23: World football governing body FIFA has agreed to hold the fil draw of the 2018 World Cup in the Kremlin, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Mutko said on Monday.

"The fil draw for the (2018) World Cup has been scheduled for December 1, and we have offered the Kremlin as the venue for this event," Mutko said during a session with Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Mefvedev.

"This proposal suited the FIFA and we are already in preparations for the Draw," Mutko, who is also the president of the Russian Football Union (RFU), added.

Russia is currently in full-swing preparations for the global football tourments after the country won the bid to host the 2018 World Cup at the FIFA Congress in Guatemala on December 4, 2010.

The victory came following a tight race against the bid from England, the joint bid from Portugal and Spain and the joint bid on behalf of Belgium and the Netherlands.

The country selected 11 host cities to be the venues for the matches of the 2018 World Cup and they are Moscow, St. Petersburg, Sochi, Kazan, Saransk, Kaliningrad, Volgograd, Rostov-on-Don, Nizhny Novgorod, Yekaterinburg and Samara.

The matches of the 2018 World Cup will be held between June 14 and July 15 at 12 stadiums located in the 11 mentioned above cities across Russia. Two of the stadiums are located in the Russian capital. IANS