World Cup 2018 draw announced
MOSCOW — A World Cup shrouded in corruption controversies and struggling to attract sponsors could have the dreariest of starts.
Saudi Arabia and tournament host Russia will play June 14 in Moscow in an opener lacking global appeal, but things should pick up the next day when 2010 World Cup champion Spain and 2016 European champion Portugal meet in Sochi.
The Iberian Peninsula neighbors were drawn into Group B during a ceremony Friday at the Kremlin. Morocco coach Herve Renard hoped to avoid the “two ogres” but must face them and Iran.
“It’s a complicated group,” Spain coach Julen Lopetegui said. “It will be tough. Portugal is a great team. It is the defending European champion and has a squad filled with top players.”
None more so than Cristiano Ronaldo, who recently joined Argentina’s Lionel Messi as the only five-time winners of FIFA’s player of the year award. Messi’s quest for his first World Cup title begins the next day when Argentina takes on Iceland — with 334,000 residents, the least-populous country to qualify for the World Cup. Group D also includes Croatia and Nigeria.
The United States will miss soccer’s top event for the first time since 1986, while four-time champion Italy is out for the first time since 1958.
Germany, which remains the favorite after winning the 2014 title, will open against Mexico in its quest to become the first country to win back-to-back World Cups since Brazil in 1962. The Germans then face Sweden and South Korea in Group F.
England, eliminated in the group stage three years ago, was drawn into Group G along with newcomer Panama, Tunisia and Belgium. Peru, the last of the 32 teams to qualify, is in Group C with 1998 champion France, Australia and Denmark.
Group E is five-time champion Brazil, Costa Rica, Serbia and Switzerland. The only group without a former World Cup champion is H — Poland, Senegal, Colombia and Japan.
The Russians have been placed with the winners of the first World Cup — Uruguay — in Group A, along with Egypt and Uruguay. At No. 65, Russia is the lowest-ranked team at the tournament, with Saudi Arabia only two places higher.
Friday’s ceremony was opened by Russia President Vladimir Putin, one day short of the seventh anniversary of the FIFA executive committee vote that awarded the 2018 World Cup to Russia and the 2022 tournament to Qatar — the subject of bribe allegations against soccer executives brought up nearly daily in New York during a corruption trial against top soccer officials.
Putin urged fans to visit and enjoy his “big and multifaceted” country, a rallying cry that comes amid concerns about racism and hooliganism.
“We will do everything to make it a major sporting festival,” Putin said, anticipating a World Cup of “friendship and fair play, values that do not change with time.”