For the video game, see. The 2018 FIFA World Cup was the 21st , an international tournament contested by the of the member associations of once every four years. It took place in Russia from 14 June to 15 July 2018. It was the first World Cup to be held in , and the 11th time that it had been held in Europe. It was also the first World Cup to use the VAR system. Of the 32 teams, 20 had also appeared in the previous tournament in , while both and made their first appearances at a FIFA World Cup. A total of 64 matches were played in 12 venues across 11 cities. The took place on 15 July at the in , between and. France won the match 4—2 to claim their , marking the fourth consecutive title won by a European team. The 100- commemorative banknote celebrates the 2018 FIFA World Cup. It features an image of Soviet goalkeeper. The 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 from proceedings, 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- nations Australia, Japan, and the United States gradually withdrew from the 2018 bids, and the UEFA nations were thus ruled out of the 2022 bid. The 22-member convened in on 2 December 2010 to vote to select the hosts of both tournaments. Russia won the right to be the 2018 host in the second round of voting. England, which was bidding to host its second tournament, was eliminated in the first round. They claimed that four members of the executive committee had requested bribes to vote for England, and had said that it had already been arranged before the vote that Russia would win. The 2014 , an internal investigation led by , was withheld from public release by , FIFA's head of adjudication on ethical matters. Eckert instead released a shorter revised summary, and his and therefore FIFA's reluctance to publish the full report caused Garcia to resign in protest. Because of the controversy, the FA refused to accept Eckert's absolving of Russia from blame, with calling for a re-examination of the affair and calling for a boycott of the World Cup. Main article: For the first time in the history of the FIFA World Cup, all eligible nations — the 209 minus automatically qualified hosts Russia — applied to enter the qualifying process. Places in the tournament were allocated to continental confederations, with the allocation unchanged from the 2014 World Cup. The first qualification game, between and , began in on 12 March 2015 as part of the , and the main qualifying draw took place at the Konstantinovsky Palace in , , on 25 July 2015. Of the 32 nations qualified to play at the 2018 FIFA World Cup, 20 countries competed at the previous tournament in. Both Iceland and Panama qualified for the first time, with the former becoming the to reach the World Cup. Other teams returning after absences of at least three tournaments include: Egypt, returning to the finals after their last appearance in 1990; Morocco, who last competed in 1998; Peru, returning after 1982; and Senegal, competing for the second time after reaching the quarter-finals in 2002. It is the first time three Denmark, Iceland and Sweden and four Egypt, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and Tunisia have qualified for the World Cup. Notable countries that failed to qualify include four-time champions for the first time since 1958 , three-time runners-up and third placed in 2014 the for the first time since 2002 , and four reigning continental champions: winners , two-time champions and runners-up , winners , and champions for the first time since 1986. The other notable qualifying streaks broken were for and , who had both made the previous three tournaments. Note: Numbers in parentheses indicate positions in the at the time of the tournament. Italian World Cup winner in Moscow at the 2018 World Cup draw The draw was held on 1 December 2017 at 18:00 at the in. The 32 teams were drawn into 8 groups of 4, by selecting one team from each of the 4 ranked pots. For the draw, the teams were allocated to four pots based on the of October 2017. Pot 1 contained the hosts Russia who were automatically assigned to position A1 and the best seven teams, pot 2 contained the next best eight teams, and so on for pots 3 and 4. This was different from previous draws, when only pot 1 was based on FIFA rankings while the remaining pots were based on geographical considerations. However, teams from the same confederation still were not drawn against each other for the group stage, except that two UEFA teams could be in each group. Pot 1 Pot 2 Pot 3 Pot 4 65 hosts 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 10 11 12 13 16 17 18 19 21 22 25 28 30 32 34 38 41 43 44 48 49 62 63 Squads players after the against France Initially, each team had to name a preliminary squad of 30 players but, in February 2018, this was increased to 35. From the preliminary squad, the team had to name a final squad of 23 players three of whom must be goalkeepers by 4 June. Players in the final squad may be replaced for serious injury up to 24 hours prior to kickoff of the team's first match and such replacements do not need to have been named in the preliminary squad. For players named in the 35-player preliminary squad, there was a mandatory rest period between 21 and 27 May 2018, except for those involved in the played on 26 May. Main article: On 29 March 2018, released the list of 36 referees and 63 assistant referees selected to oversee matches. On 30 April 2018, FIFA released the list of 13 video assistant referees, who solely acted in this capacity in the tournament. Referee of Saudi Arabia was removed in 30 May 2018 over a match-fixing attempt, along with his two assistant referees, compatriots Mohammed Al-Abakry and Abdulah Al-Shalwai. A new referee was not
