‘The nights are so light I woke up at 3am and thought it was time to get up’

attend the opening ceremony but Britain is among countries whose officials are boycotting the tournament in the wake of the poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.

Russia said a number of heads of state and government will be attending, including the president of the Republic of Abkhazia and the president of the Republic of South Ossetia – both parts of the former Soviet Union.

Gareth Southgate’s Three Lions launch their bid for glory at 7pm on Monday when they take on Tunisia in their opening match in Volgograd which is being shown by the BBC.

Millions of patriotic fans are expected to cram into pubs and bars up and down the country for the long-awaited start to the tournament.

England take on Panama in their second match on Sunday, June 24. The game, which is being played in Nizhny Novgorod, kicks off at 1pm and is also being shown on the BBC.

They take on Belgium in their final group stage clash in Kaliningrad at 7pm on Thursday, June 28.

Yesterday England’s footballers won an army of new fans as they trained for the first time after arriving at their World Cup base camp and invited 400 locals to join them. Delighted schoolchildren, many of them draped in St George’s flags, were given England goodie bags before the squad signed footballs and shirts for them.

England was hailed as “the motherland of football” as the squad were welcomed to the Stadium Spartak Zelenogorsk on the outskirts of St Petersburg where they have set up their training camp.

They had earlier been introduced one by one to the crowd to the strains of the Stone Roses song This Is The One.

Southgate and England captain Kane were handed gifts of korovai