FIFA unveils Official Mascot for 2018 World Cup

Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) on 21 October 2016 unveiled the Official Mascot for the 2018 World Cup. The Official Mascot for the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia is named Zabivaka, which means ‘the one who scores’ in Russian. The mascot is the wolf developed by student designer Ekaterina Bocharova. The selected mascot had received 53 per cent of the votes, followed by

the tiger (27 per cent) and the cat (20 per cent).

About 2018 World Cup

• The 2018 FIFA World Cup will be the 21st FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial international football tournament contested by the men's national teams of the member associations of FIFA.

• It is scheduled to take place in Russia from 14 June to 15 July 2018.

• Russia was awarded the hosting rights on 2 December 2010.

• This will be the first World Cup ever held in Eastern Europe, and the first held in Europe since 2006.

• The final tournament will involve 32 national teams, which include 31 teams determined through qualifying competitions and the automatically qualified host team.

• A total of 64 matches will be played in 12 venues located in 11 cities. The final is expected to take place in Moscow at the Luzhniki Stadium.

• The winners will qualify for the 2021 FIFA Confederations Cup.