World Cup Festival

On 14-15 July 2018 World Cup Festival organized by Mobile World and Big Begawan Project and supported by the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Brunei Darussalam was held in Bandar Seri Begawan. Chargé d'affaires ad interim of the Russian Federation to Brunei Darussalam Mr.Tamerlan Munchaev officiated the event.

On 15 July, on the day of the final game of the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, the Russian Embassy joined the programme of the Festival activities with a colourful video presentation highlighting the brightest and most exciting moments of this year’s championship.

Russia has a long and proud tradition of playing football. This game first set foot on its soil in the late 19th century. The Soviet Union competed in the World Cup since 1958, and became the winner of the first continental contest – Euro 1960. Russia also won two Olympic football tournaments in 1956 and 1988. This year Russian team made the greatest breakthrough in the World Cup in its history getting to the quarter finals.

In preparation for the tournament, Russia did everything to make sure that 2018 World Cup becomes the best in history. The participants of the Festival were shown videos of the beautiful sights of the 11 Russian host cities, 12 modern stadiums which were constructed or remodelled especially for the event. The 2018 World Cup featured a number of high-tech solutions and innovations, including the Fan ID and Video Assistant Referee (VAR) system.

FIFA President Gianni Infantino already acknowledged that Russia has set a new benchmark for international tournaments, saying that the 2018 World Cup is the best world championship in history. He also underlined that the atmosphere in Russia is incredible, the people unbelievable and the matches – great. The 2018 World Cup became one of the most exciting in history with only one game ending with scoreless draw. The tournament was intriguing, full of surprising breakthroughs and unforgettable clashes of styles and wills.

It was emphasized in the presentation that the World Cup was not only about matches and football players, but even more so about admirers of this game from all over the globe, including over three million international fans who came to Russia during the time of the tournament. Last month in Russia was a colourful, never seizing, captivating carnival.

Therefore, July 15 became an exciting, but also a sad day, because the World Cup was leaving Russia. Russian Embassy expressed hope however that friends from all over the world, including Brunei will come back to Russia again and again.