1000 days remain until the 2018 FIFA World Cup

Dear Editor,

The Countdown Clock was launched on Manezhnaya Square in Moscow marking a 1000 day countdown to the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia.

Russia promises to make a planetary scale event, the most spectacular in its history. The whole country will be the territory of football. The world championship will be held at 12 stadiums in 11 Russian cities: Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Kazan, Nizhny, Novgorod, Saransk, Kaliningrad, Volgograd, Ekaterinburg, Samara, Sochi and Rostov-on-Don.

Hundreds of fans and professional players from different countries came to watch the ceremony of the countdown start.

“I believe that the forthcoming championship will be just fine. I am sure that Russia will have a warm and familiar welcome for participants and guests of the championship. And the remaining thousand days will be enough for the Russian national team to prepare and adequately address the domestic championship,” – said Lottar Matthaus, FIFA World Player of the Year 1991.

Russia has won the right to host the FIFA World Cup 2018 in fair competition, by offering the preferred modalities of world sports forums, both technical and organizational, defending the idea of de-politicization of sports in the international arena.

12 modern stadiums will be reconstructed, 110 training fields will be built. We have proposed a framework for the accommodation of 64 teams. For the World Cup the country will upgrade 13 airports.

Russia for the first time in history has made a commitment to provide foreign fans not only the right to visa-free entry into the country, but also free rail travel between cities that will host matches of the tournament, subject to the availability of tickets for the respective competitions.

Our country, in respect of which unsuccessful attempts of political pressure were made to cancel the decision to host the FIFA World Cup 2018, pays constant attention to depoliticize the topic of sport, support sport for sustainable development and peace.

At the 69th Session of the UN General Assembly the Russian delegation has initiated the adoption of the corresponding amendments to the resolution on “Sport as a means to promote education, health, development and peace” including the wording “support the independence and autonomy of sport.” Russian diplomacy has supported the inclusion of sports among the priorities of the global development agenda beyond 2015, the adoption of which should take place on the sidelines of the 70th Session of the UN General Assembly.

Leaders of major international sports organizations, sports functionaries and foreign athletes overwhelmingly appreciate Russia’s contribution to the development of the Olympic movement and international sports cooperation in general. XXII Olympic Winter Games and XI Paralympic Winter Games 2014 in Sochi have been recognized as the best in the history of the Olympics, not only in terms of the hospitality of the host country, but also in terms of organization, safety, quality of sports facilities, creating a barrier-free environment and compliance with environmental standards.

World Swimming Championships FINA held in Kazan on July 24 – August 9, 2015, which was attended by sportsmen from Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago and other Caribbean countries, has received coverage in the Guyanese media.

In the coming years Russia will have more than two dozen large-scale sporting events, world-level championships and World Cup events, including circuit racing “Formula 1” and the World Winter Universiade Games.

We are waiting for the Guyanese guests at the 2018 World Cup and other sporting events in Russia.

Aleksei Illiuviev,

Press Attaché, Embassy of Russia