Football legends Diego Maradona, Pele and Spartak Moscow icon Nikita Simonyan all took part on Friday in the draw for the World Cup next year in Russia. Here’s a look at what these matchups mean for Russian fans and the three host cities. Satisfied Russians The Russian national team was drawn alongside Uruguay, Egypt and Saudi Arabia in Group A, which Russian manager Stanislav Cherchesov and his players should be more than satisfied with: The hosts avoided the toughest teams, and Russia can expect to advance to the round of 16, at least. Drawing Uruguay also meant Russia would avoid playing England. When the two sides met at the European Championships France last year, Russian and English hooligans clashed, and fights even broke out in the stadium at the end of the game.

In fact, England will play all of their three group matches in the smaller cities, Volgograd, Nizhny Novgorod and Kaliningrad. None are known for their hooligans, and England fans should feel safe when they visit their team’s matches. If England finishes second in their group, however, they’ll play at Spartak Stadium in Moscow in the Round of 16, which will take the traveling fans close to many of the hooligans who attacked them in France.



Authorities will also be happy that Russia avoided Croatia. Diehard Russian fans have close links with like-minded Orthodox Christian fans in Serbia, and playing against their archrivals could have wreaked serious havoc across whichever city the game would have been played in.

Province party While the biggest games will be played in Moscow and St. Petersburg, the World Cup also gives the visitors a chance to see more of Russia than just the two most famous cities. Several of the biggest teams will have to travel around the country, meaning that even some of the smaller host cities will get to host big games. England and Belgium will, for example, clash in Kaliningrad, while Argentina take on Croatia in Nizhny Novgorod and Portugal meets Spain in Sochi. That means these cities will get their fair share of attention. While there are no specific groups that smell of trouble beforehand, major risks loom over the World Cup. The largest lies in the first round, where multiple countries will play in Moscow — including the Russia, Germany and Poland. In 2012, when Poland and Ukraine hosted the European championship, Russian hooligans rioted in the streets of Warsaw, and 123 people, Russians and Polish, were arrested in one day.

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