It’s 2018, the year of the FIFA World Cup !!

The whole of the football fraternity was eagerly waiting for the much awaited FIFA World Cup to start. So, as we welcome 2018, the wait for the FIFA World Cup is finally over. This year Russia is hosting the FIFA World Cup 2018. This is the 21st FIFA World Cup. It will be held from 14th June to 1th July, 2018.

Groups….

The final tournament will involve 32 national teams, which include 31 teams determined through qualifying competitions and the automatically qualified host team. These 32 teams will be divided into 8 groups of 4 teams each.

Stadiums….

On 8 October 2015, FIFA and the Local Organising Committee agreed on the official names of the stadiums used during the tournament.

Of the 12 venues used, the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow and the Saint Petersburg Stadium (the two largest stadiums in Russia) will be used most, with 7 matches being played at each of these stadiums. Sochi, Kazan, Nizhny Novogrod and Samara will host 6 matches including one quarter-final match apiece, and the Otkrytiye Stadium in Moscow and Rostov-on-Don will host 5 matches apiece including one round of 16 match each. Volgograd, Kaliningrad, Yekaterinburg and Saransk will host 4 matches each and none of these cities will host any knockout stage games.

Official Mascot….

The official FIFA World Cup mascot for the 2018 tournament, a wolf named Zabivaka (“the one who scores” in Russian), was unveiled on 21 October 2016. Representing an anthropomorphic wolf with brown and white wool T-shirt with the words “RUSSIA 2018” and orange sport glasses. The combination of white, blue and red T-shirt and shorts are the national colors of the Russian team. The student designer is Ekaterina Bocharova, and the mascot was selected by Internet voting.

Official Ball….

A reinvention of a classic model with a brand-new panel design and the latest technology: in an exciting re-imagining, adidas revealed the official match ball for the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia on (th November 2017, which pays homage to the first-ever adidas World Cup ball. The Telstar 18 evokes unforgettable memories of the 1970 FIFA World Cup – and of legends like Pelé, Gerd Müller, Giacinto Facchetti, Pedro Rocha and Bobby Moore – and will feed the dreams of those who will play for football’s most coveted prize in Russia next year.

“I was lucky enough to get to know this ball a bit earlier and I managed to have a try with it,” Argentina star Lionel Messi said. “I like all of it: the new design, the colours, everything.”

The name of the original Telstar came from its status as the “star of television”. The first ball to be decorated with black panels, the pattern was designed to stand out on black-and-white TVs, and changed football design forever.

Almost 50 years later, Telstar 18 features a brand new carcass, high technology and sustainable elements such as recycled packaging. It also includes an embedded NFC chip, which enables consumers to interact with the ball using a smartphone. The personalised and location-aware experience displays specific details of each ball and provides access to challenges which users can enter in the run-up to the FIFA World Cup™.

“The original Telstar is one of the most iconic footballs of all time and one which changed football design forever, so developing the Telstar 18 while staying true to the original model was a really exciting challenge for us. The new panel structure and inclusion of an NFC chip has taken football innovation and design to a new level and offers both consumers and players a completely new experience,” said Roland Rommler, Category Director of Football Hardware at adidas.