This book explores the 2018 Men's Football World Cup in Russia through a comparison of the host cities of Ekaterinburg and Volgograd - two major but peripheral cities little discussed outside of Russia. It unpacks the World Cup at multiple scales of analysis, from global political economic processes, Russian national state spatial strategies, uneven municipal developments, the creation and distribution of soft power narratives to the domestic audience, and varieties of adoption or refusal of those narratives among host city residents. In so doing, the book offers a light and revisable framework for understanding mega-events regardless of national context. Sven Daniel Wolfe is junior lecturer at the University of Lausanne. He studies mega-events, urban development, and the cultures of protest and resistance.

Despite many negative expectations of the 2018 FIFA World Cup, Russia delivered one of the best World Cups in living memory. This book brings together leading scholars working in Russian studies, sociology and political science to analyse the 2018 World Cup and assess its significance for sport, Russia and the world. The book explores the connections between sport, soft power, populism, protest, and international politics, and investigates topics including security, surveillance, social media and patriotic mobilization, shining new light on key contemporary themes in the social sciences. It reflects upon the importance of sporting mega-events for public diplomacy, and considers what the 2018 World Cup can tell us about the current condition of Russian society and the Russian state. This is fascinating reading for anybody with an interest in soccer, sport and society, Russia, international politics, events, or post-Soviet societies.

Get ready Prepare for the 2018 World Cup in Russia with the most authoritative and comprehensive preview of soccer's greatest tournament Officially licensed by FIFA--world soccer's governing body. Packed with stunning photography and expert analysis of each of the 32 teams, its star players, and its prospects in the finals, this official book is essential for soccer fans everywhere. It features a guide to all 12 stadiums and 11 host cities, a history of the FIFA World Cup, and a tournament progress chart to complete as competition progresses. Whether you're watching the games live in Russia, in front of a television at home, or with friends at a club, bar, or FIFA World Cup Fan Zone, this is the tournament preview for you.

Are you ready to take your soccer game to the next level? Or just looking for ways to improve your team? This book can help solve your problems. Soccer is the world's most popular sport. In the Summer of 2018 the latest World Cup Finals take place in Russia, with some of the best (and, perhaps, luckiest) teams in the world participating. The competition will see teams divided into mini leagues, based on their world rankings and a draw. The top two teams from each group go forward to the knock out stages. The best two will compete the final. There is a more than reasonable bet that existing champions Germany will once again lift the trophy, although Brazil, Argentina, Spain and France will all fancy their chances. The Belgians have the team of a life time, and could triumph, while the likes of Saudi Arabia and Panama should make the most of their time in Eastern Europe - it will probably be short lived. As for Russia itself, the lowest ranked side in the competition, well, who knows? Home advantage can count for a lot. This short focus on the World Cup is of great relevance to the book that follows. Consider the team below: Those of you with good football knowledge will spot that these great players, along with many more, are some of the giants of the game who will not feature in the World Cup Finals, other than perhaps in the commentary box, pundit's chair or newspaper columns of June 2018. How can this be? How can such individuals not represent their countries on the biggest stage of all? The answer, as we know, is that soccer is team game, where the collective talents of the players outweigh the individual skills of the maestro. The great sides do, naturally, incorporate such talents within their squad, but it is so often the case that a team that works together and combines well outperforms a side made up of more talented individuals who are less effective team players. And the secret to success is possession of the football. Passing and the possession this helps to retain really are two of the most important parts of team play for a soccer team. This book will look at a number of ways both coaches and players can improve such aspects of their own side's performance.

This book analyzes the 2018 and 2019 men's and women's World Cups to understand how the use of Video Assistant Referees (VAR) affected each tournament. Unlike goal technology, where the decision is entirely left to the machine's algorithm, the VAR still has a human component, making it prone to errors and controversies. Building on the theories of justice, the book quantitatively reviews event-level data while using a historical perspective to depict a novel approach to the effects of VAR in major soccer tournaments. The six chapters examine the use of VAR, discuss when it was not used (but maybe should have been used), and explore how the World Cup evolved with the new technology. Combining the VAR events of 2018 and 2019 with comparable situations from past World Cups guides the reader into debating the meaning of justice and the potential of ever achieving fairness in soccer. Jorge Tovar is Associate Professor in the Department of Economics at the Universidad de Los Andes, Colombia. He has held previous appointments as a Visiting Scholar at Stanford University (2011) and as the Tinker-NAVE Visiting Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (2020).

Sport is a global phenomenon engaging billions of people and generating annual revenues of more than US$ 145 billion. Problems in the governance of sports organisations, fixing of matches and staging of major sporting events have spurred action on many fronts. Yet attempts to stop corruption in sport are still at an early stage. The Global Corruption Report (GCR) on sport is the most comprehensive analysis of sports corruption to date. It consists of more than 60 contributions from leading experts in the fields of corruption and sport, from sports organisations, governments, multilateral institutions, sponsors, athletes, supporters, academia and the wider anti-corruption movement. This GCR provides essential analysis for understanding the corruption risks in sport, focusing on sports governance, the business of sport, planning of major events, and match-fixing. It highlights the significant work that has already been done and presents new approaches to strengthening integrity in sport. In addition to measuring transparency and accountability, the GCR gives priority to participation, from sponsors to athletes to supporters an essential to restoring trust in sport.