The opening match of the FIFA World Cup 2018 will be played in Warsaw. The final is scheduled four weeks later in Kiev. This was announced yesterday by the Russian Football Union. The other world cup matches will be played in Moscow, Tallinn, Bucharest, Minsk, Kaunas, Riga, Stalingrad, Odessa, Sochi and Krakow.

Nikolaj Tolstych, head of the Russian football association, is pleased: ‘We have the opportunity to show the real Russia: from the vast plains near the Gulf of Finland to the Black Sea, with idyllic regions such as the Volga valley and eastern Europe.’