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| nextseason = ''[[2022 FIFA World Cup|2022]]''
}}
The '''2018 FIFA World Cup''' was an international [[Association football|football]] tournament contested by [[List of men's national association football teams|men's national teams]] and took place between 14 June and 15 July 2018 in Russia. It was the 21st [[FIFA World Cup]], a worldwide football tournament held once every four years. It was the 11th time the championships had been held in Europe, and the first time they were held in Eastern Europe. At an estimated cost of over $14.2 billion, it was the most expensive World Cup to date.
The finals involved 32 teams, of which 31 came through [[2018 FIFA World Cup qualification|qualifying competitions]], while as the host nation [[Russia national football team|Russia]] qualified automatically. Of the 32, 20 had also appeared in the [[2014 FIFA World Cup|2014 event]], while both [[Iceland national football team|Iceland]] and [[Panama national football team|Panama]] made their first appearances at the World Cup. 64 matches were played in 12 venues across 11 cities. [[Germany national football team|Germany]], the defending champions, were eliminated in the group stage. Host nation Russia was eliminated in the quarter-finals. In the [[2018 FIFA World Cup Final|final]], [[France national football team|France]] played [[Croatia national football team|Croatia]] on 15 July at the [[Luzhniki Stadium]] in [[Moscow]]. France won the match 4–2 to claim their second World Cup.
The event featured a number of accolades. Croatian player [[Luka Modrić]] was voted the tournament's best player winning the Golden Ball. England's [[Harry Kane]] scored the most goals during the tournament with six. [[Thibaut Courtois]] won the Golden Glove awarded to the [[goalkeeper]] with the most [[clean sheet]]s. The event was praised for the quality of football but criticised for being a distraction from [[Doping in Russia|doping allegations]] and public relations within Russia. It has been estimated that more than three million people attended games during the tournament.
==Host selection==
{{Main|Russia 2018 FIFA World Cup bid}}
[[File:Russia 2018 World Cup.jpeg|thumb|Russian bid personnel celebrate the awarding of the 2018 World Cup to Russia on 2 December 2010.]]
[[File:Vladimir Putin FIFA World Cup Trophy Tour kick-off ceremony.jpg|thumb|President [[Vladimir Putin]] holding the [[FIFA World Cup Trophy]] at a pre-tournament ceremony in Moscow on 9 September 2017]]
[[File:Russia 100 Rubles 2018 FIFA World Cup.jpg|thumb|upright|The 100-[[Russian ruble|ruble]] commemorative banknote celebrates the 2018 FIFA World Cup. It features an image of Soviet goalkeeper [[Lev Yashin]].]]
The [[2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cup bids|bidding procedure to host the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cup tournaments]] began in January 2009, and national associations had until 2 February 2009 to register their interest.<ref name="d6GeE" /> Initially, nine countries placed bids for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, but Mexico later withdrew from the proceedings,<ref name="FtNjO" /> and Indonesia's bid was rejected by FIFA in February 2010 after the Indonesian government failed to submit a letter to support the bid.<ref name="GhOle" /> During the bidding process, the three remaining non-[[UEFA]] nations (Australia, Japan, and the United States) gradually withdrew from the 2018 bids, and thus were ruled out of the 2022 bid. As such, there were eventually four bids for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, two of which were joint bids: England, Russia, Netherlands/Belgium, and Portugal/Spain.<ref name="xBccj" />
The 22-member [[FIFA Council|FIFA Executive Committee]] convened in [[Zürich]] on 2 December 2010 to vote to select the hosts of both tournaments.<ref name="WFQKr" /> 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, which was bidding to host its second tournament, was eliminated in the first round.<ref name="kKxiB" />
The voting results were:<ref name="xBccj" />
!Round 2
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|'''RussiaTivot - Blueacia'''
|style="text-align:center"|9
|{{yes|13}}
| 