FIFA announces 2018 World Cup nat'l slogans

FT ONLINE

The world's governing football body, FIFA, published on Thursday a list of official logos for each of 32 participating teams in the upcoming 2018 FIFA World Cup and the logo of hosts Russia is "Play With an Open Heart."

"The votes have been counted. The fans have spoken," FIFA said in a statement. "We now have the 32 slogans that captured the hearts, and votes, of the global FIFA Club community!"

Before the winning variant of "Play With an Open Heart" was approved in the course of the voting the other two variants in previous top-three had suggestions of "The Russian Bears Stride to Victory" and "With a Full Heart the Entire Nation is Pursuing the Dream."

"The winning slogans will be displayed on the 32 team buses at the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia," the statement from FIFA said adding that each lucky slogan creator will be awarded with a trip to Russia for the world football championship.

Reigning World Champions Germany will have the logo saying "Zusammen. Geschichte schreiben (Let's Write History Together), while the 2016 UEFA Euro Cup Champions Portugal may be recognized in Russia during the World Cup under their official logo "O Passado E Gloria, O Presente E Historia" (The Past Is Glory, The Present Is History).

The 2018 FIFA World Cup kicks off in 21 days with the opening match in the Russian capital of Moscow.

Russia selected 11 host cities to be the venues for the matches of the 2018 World Cup and they are Moscow, St. Petersburg, Sochi, Kazan, Saransk, Kaliningrad, Volgograd, Rostov-on-Don, Nizhny Novgorod, Yekaterinburg and Samara.

The matches of the 2018 World Cup will be held between June 14 and July 15 at 12 stadiums located in the 11 mentioned above cities across Russia. Two of the stadiums are located in the Russian capital. afp