Your guide to all
major popular
sporting events for
the month of June.
International Friendly
SATURDAY 2
England v Nigeria, Wembley
THURSDAY 7
England v Costa Rica, Elland Road
World Cup
THURSDAY 14 – 15 JULY
See page 36 for full fixtures.
Host Selection
THURSDAY 28
England v Belgium, Kaliningrad
SATURDAY 30 – 3 JULY
World Cup 2nd Round
The 2018 FIFA World Cup will be the
21st FIFA World Cup. It will be the first
World Cup held in Europe since the
2006 tournament in Germany, and the
first ever to be held in Eastern Europe.
All of the stadium venues are in
European Russia, to keep travel time
manageable.
32 national teams are involved, which
include 31 teams determined through
qualifying competitions and the
automatically qualified host team. Of the
32 teams, 20 will be making back-to-back
appearances following the last
tournament in 2014, including defending
champions Germany, while Iceland and
Panama will both be making their first
appearances at a FIFA World Cup.
MONDAY 18
England v Tunisia, Volgograd
SUNDAY 24
England v Panama, Nizhny Novgorod
A total of 64 matches will be played in 12
venues located in 11 cities. The final will
take place on 15 July at the Luzhniki
Stadium in Moscow.
38
The bidding procedure to host the 2018
and 2022 FIFA World Cups began in
January 2009, and national associations
had until 2 February 2009 to register
their interest. Initially, nine countries
placed bids for the 2018 FIFA World
Cup, but Mexico later withdrew and
Indonesia’s bid was rejected by FIFA in
February 2010 after the Indonesian
government failed to submit a letter to
support the bid. During the bidding
process, the three remaining non-UEFA
nations (Australia, Japan, and the United
States) gradually withdrew from the 2018
bids. There were eventually four bids for
the 2018 FIFA World Cup, two of which
were joint bids: England, Russia,
Netherlands/Belgium, and Portugal/
Spain.
The twenty-two-member FIFA Executive
Committee convened in Zürich on 2
December 2010 to vote to select the hosts
and Russia won the right to be the 2018
host in the second round of voting. The
Portugal/Spain bid came second, and
that from Belgium/Netherlands third.
England’s bid to host its second
tournament fell at the first hurdle.