FIFA World Cup Football Russia

Here we go, here we go, here we go bring on World Cup 2018

June 14, 2018, the latest FIFA World CUP Football competition gets underway.

For football fans around the world the so-called beautiful game will be all consuming for the next month. Wives, children, work, and more will be put on the back-burner as ardent footie fans cheer, cry, shout, get angry, lose sleep and watch game after game following their squad on to victory.

Well that is the plan but only one team can win the World Cup and raise the trophy for the world to see.

In Britain football fever is set to kick in or rather has kicked in today as the opening ceremony gets underway.

England and football

Modern football has its roots in the U.K. with claims the game began in England in 1863.

Perhaps that is why the England squad’s successive defeats hurt so much. In 1966 the England team were champions winning the World Cup in front of the home and host nation but World Cup success has eluded England ever since.

Every four years as the World Cup tournament approaches England fans take a breath and say a prayer as they cross their fingers.

Could 2018 be England’s year at last?

• FIFA, the Fédération Internationale de Football Association, organizes and runs each World Cup
• The participating teams represent a country and each team’s players are nationals
• It is a men only competition though there are many women football teams currently. There is a separate women’s World Cup competition
• FIFA was founded in 1904 and early competitions between nations were organized
• Two world wars however took their toll
• In 1920 British teams withdraw from this competition. This action was in protest against foreign influence in football but it was also because players were reluctant to play teams from countries they had fought so recently in war
• The British teams did not take part in the World Cup again until 1950 when the contest was held in Brazil.
• The beautiful game may have its roots in England but it is a global phenomenon.

Sepp Blatter served as boss of FIFA from 1998 to 2015 and he wanted it to be a job for life for him. Allegations of corruption and financial mismangement dogged his final years as the 8th President of FIFA.

Blatter is currently serving a six-year ban from taking part in any FIFA activities.

The host nation selection process has not been without controversy.

Russia was a controversial choice for 2018 but consider in 2022 this competition will be held in Qatar or at least that’s the plan.

As the World Cup is traditionally held in June the climate of Qatar could cause various problems for the players. Add to this ongoing conflicts in the middle east and it may be a difficult location.

However other countries have challenging climates and politics.

Russia

Russia set out its intention to bid to host the World cup back in 2009. The process began as applications were formally invited, the closing date for registering intention to bid came around and in March the deadline to submit the completed bid registration forms arrived.

Russia met the criteria and was successful but controversy followed.

FIFA President Sepp Blatter was ousted but it was too late.

England had bid for World Cup 2018 along with other countries and in spite of calls to revoke the decision to choose Russia it is going ahead.

Since the bid was won the world stage has changed politically and to some extent we are back in a cold war with Russia and its leader President Putin.

For him staging the World Cup is a great propaganda coup.

But sport and football should never be about the politics.

For the next four weeks it is football all the way and fingers crossed that fans of the sport in Russia and those visiting that country for the football play nicley off the pitch.

In England there are so many stories damning Robbie Williams for opening Russia 2018.

Robbie has stated his case on Twitter.

He is a huge football fan and in another life may have been a footballer

Centering on the negatives and England is not useful.

This is a World Cup competition and national squads have worked toward this event for the last four years plus Russia has invested for the matches and foreign visitors.

Qualifying teams are split into groups. It is pot luck who draws who.

England may complain they are in a bad group, that is it will be hard to win, or be happy to be in an easy group, where they are expected to triumph, but if the team is the best in the world they should win either way.

The first match is from Group A and is Russia versus Saudi Arabia. It kicks off at 4pm BST, 6pm local time.

There is always a lot of pressure on the host nation to win their first match and ultimately the cup.

Groups are A - H with four teams in each group.

Group A

Russia S.Arabia Egypt Uruguay

Group B

Portugal Spain Morocco Iran

Group C

France Australia Peru Denmark

Group D

Argentina Iceland Croatia Nigeria

Group E

Brazil Switzerland C.Rica Serbia

Group F

Germany Mexico Sweden S.Korea

Group G

Belgium Panama Tunisia England

Group H

Poland Senegal Colombia Japan

There is a huge amount of football until the end of June when the Group Stage is complete.

The bottom two teams from each group are eliminated and the remaining 18 teams move onto the Round of 16 stage.

The quarter-finals should start July 6 with the semi-finals on July 10.

Third place play off in July 14 and on July 15 the final match in World Cup Russia 2018 will decide who hols the prized trophy for the next four years.