FIFA World Cup 2018: Interesting Facts Every Fanatic Should Know

Time moves pretty fast, it feels like it was just a couple of months ago that Germany won the World Cup 2014 in Brazil. And now we are here, just a matter of hours for the world’s biggest football tournament to kick start in Russia. Here are some interesting facts to add to the frenzy and excitement.

1. It will be the first time in history that Russia is hosting the FIFA World Cup. The kick-off match and the final will be held at the Luzhniki Stadium, Moscow.
2. The official emblem colours – red, gold, black, and blue represents the heart and spirit of Russia. The logo was introduced at Russia’s International Space Station.
3. The official mascot for FIFA 2018 is Zabivaka (means ‘the one who scores’ in Russian) a wolf who is fast, radiates fun, charm and confidence and extremely skilful with the ball. It was designed by graphic design student Ekaterina Bocharova.
4. The official match ball of the 2018 FIFA World Cup will be the Telstar 18 designed by Adidas in black, white and gold lettering.
5. The brand has been designing for FIFA since 1970.
6. The original Telstar was designed for FIFA World Cup 1970 in Mexico. It was a black and white hexagonal patterned ball for comfortableviewing on black and white TVs. This pattern then came to be associated with footballs for a long time since then.
7. One does not need a visa to visit Russia during the tournament. There will be a Fan-ID—the special permit available to holders of World Cup tickets—which will act as an entry and exit visa to and from Russia. Isn’t that good news?
8. The winning team gets a prize money of $35 million while the runner-up team gets $25 million. Every participating team gets awarded a whopping $8 million dollars.