A country with a proud footballing history, Russia is hosting its first World Cup in 2018. Its initial participation was as part of the Soviet Union with a best placing of 4th at the 1966 tournament won by England. They had better success in the European Championships being crowned champions in 1960 and making the final on another 3 occasions. Since 1992 they have represented Russia on its own with mixed results and no real success including missing qualifying for the knockout stage in Brazil 2014. Proud clubs such as CSK Moscow, Zenit St Petersburg and Rubin Kazan have represented well in the UEFA Champions League though, and support is as passionate as ever for the national team.

The organisers have designed the tournament to feature cities in the European west of this vast country, to make travel and infrostructures easier for supporters and teams alike. Below is a list of the host cities and more information on them.

Host Cities

 

There are 11 host cities for the World Cup. Moscow, Nizhny-Novgorod, Kazan, Saransk and Samara are in the central European area of the country with easy river and canal access to Moscow.

St Petersburg is also accessible by waterways and lies in the northern border region with Scandanavia.

Volgograd and Rostov-on-don are further south but can still be accessed by the Volga River.

Sochi is situated on the Black Sea in the south and enjoys a warm summer climate. It will be accessed by flight.

Kaliningrad is a Russian exclave which borders Poland and is accessible by flight

Ekaterinburg is the capital of the Ural Mountain area to the east and is accessible by flight.

Depending on the draw we will either sail to the city for the games or park it up in Moscow or another major city plus we may need to use hotels if the draw doesn't work out with the rivers. Whatever the outcome, the itinerary will be well organised with a Russian guide with us all the time