The 2018 FIFA World Cup opening ceremony took place on Thursday, 14 June 2018, at the

Luzhniki Stadium The Grand Sports Arena of the Luzhniki Olympic Complex, commonly known as Luzhniki Stadium, is the national stadium of Russia, located in its capital city, Moscow. Its total seating capacity of 78,011 makes it the List of football stadiums in R ...

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

, Russia at 3:30 (BST), about a half hour before the opening match which Russia won 5–0 over Saudi Arabia.

Mascots

Zabivaka (English: "The one who scores"), was the official mascot for the

2018 FIFA World Cup The 2018 FIFA World Cup was the 21st FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for national association football, football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Russia from 14 June to 15 July 2018, after the country was awarded t ...

and was voted for by a 53% margin. The design is of a wolf who represents fun, charm, and character. Former world cup winning, Brazilian striker Ronaldo was another mascot of the tournament. Ronaldo was the intended man to deliver the ceremonial first kick of the tournament but instead, he gave that honor to the child mascot who passed the official match ball to Zabivaka in order to start the tournament. The match ball (an

Adidas Telstar 18 The Adidas Telstar 18 was the official match ball of the 2018 FIFA World Cup, which was held in the Russian Federation. It was designed by the company Adidas, a FIFA Partner and FIFA World Cup official match ball supplier since 1970, and based o ...

) was sent into space with the International Space Station crew in March and came back to Earth in early June.

Speeches

Russian President The president of Russia, officially the president of the Russian Federation (), is the executive head of state of Russia. The president is the chair of the Federal State Council and the supreme commander-in-chief of the Russian Armed Forces. I ...

Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who has served as President of Russia since 2012, having previously served from 2000 to 2008. Putin also served as Prime Minister of Ru ...

gave the opening speech of the tournament in which he talked about an "open, hospitable and friendly" Russia hosting the tournament. He also described Russia's love for football, calling the tournament and the game "a unity which cannot be affected by a different language, ideology or faith". Putin ended by saying: Putin's speech was immediately followed by a short speech from FIFA President

Gianni Infantino Giovanni Vincenzo Infantino (); (born 23 March 1970) is a Swiss-Italian Association football, football Administrator (business), administrator and the president of the FIFA, Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) since 26 Febr ...

who said: Following the two speeches the performance of the ceremony were allowed to commence before the opening match between Russia and Saudi Arabia.

Performances

Robbie Williams Aida Garifullina 2018 FIFA World Cup

British pop singer

Robbie Williams Robert Peter Williams (born 13 February 1974) is an English singer and songwriter. He found fame as a member of the pop group Take That from 1990 to 1995, launching a solo career in 1996. His debut studio album, ''Life thru a Lens'', was re ...

took centre stage at the end of the ceremony with a rendition of " Let Me Entertain You" before Russian soprano Aida Garifullina was carried out on to the pitch on the back of a "firebird" float. Williams sang a section of " Feel" before he and Garifullina performed a duet of "

Angels An angel is a spiritual (without a physical body), heavenly, or supernatural being, usually humanoid with bird-like wings, often depicted as a messenger or intermediary between God (the transcendent) and humanity (the profane) in variou ...

" as performers emerged, dressed in the flags of all 32 teams and carrying a sign bearing the name of each nation. Williams then sang "

Rock DJ "Rock DJ" is a song by English singer and songwriter Robbie Williams, featured on his third studio album, ''Sing When You're Winning'' (2000). The song was released on 31 July 2000 as the lead single from the album. It samples Barry White's so ...

" in an encore as the pitch was being cleared for the first match.

Controversy

During the encore, Williams gave the

middle finger The middle finger, long finger, second finger, third finger, toll finger or tall man is the third digit of the human hand, typically located between the index finger and the ring finger. It is typically the longest digit. In anatomy, it is al ...

Fox Foxes are small-to-medium-sized omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull; upright, triangular ears; a pointed, slightly upturned snout; and a long, bushy tail ("brush"). Twelve species ...

in the US apologised for the incident. The incident was not shown on ITV in the UK who had cut away prior to the encore. In addition, while singing

, Williams sung, "Pimpin' ain't easy. Most of them fleece me, but I did this for free." The lyrics "But I did this for free" replaced the lyrics "Every night". Williams appeared on '' This Morning'' on 19 June and explained what happened, “It was one minute to kick off, I was under a lot of pressure, because there was one minute left and I didn't know how I was going to do half a minute, so I just did a one-minute countdown sing his middle finger” Asked by presenter

Phillip Schofield Phillip Bryan Schofield ( ; born 1 April 1962) is an English television presenter. He began his career as a Children's BBC continuity announcer from 1985 to 1987, and went on to present a wide range of high-profile programmes for the BBC and ...

whether he regrets it, he said: "Yeah, of course, yeah. I cannot trust me. And the last thing I said to my manager before we sat down on the sofa here was, 'what could go wrong,' because I don't know what I'm going to do at any time. There's no, sort of, plan. The plan was, sing in key, don't fall over. That was the plan and 99% of the plan, I pulled off.” When asked did the idea just enter his head he responded, “Nothing actually pops into my head. There's a block between me and sense... then something happens and then five minutes later, I'm like, 'Did I? Yeah, I did, didn't I?”. Williams changing his lyrics "every night" is still unexplained.

Dignitaries in attendance

A total of 21 foreign heads of state attended this match. It was the largest gathering of leaders for a

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often called the World Cup, is an international association football competition among the senior List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams of the members of the FIFA, Fédération Internatio ...

match. *

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–

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–

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–

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–

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* Vice Premier of the

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–

Sun Chunlan Sun Chunlan ( zh , s = 孙春兰 ; born 24 May 1950) is a retired Chinese politician. She served as the second-ranked Vice Premier of China and the highest-ranking incumbent female government official until March 2023. Previously, she served a ...

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of CIS – Sergei Lebedev * Former

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–

Nicolas Sarkozy Nicolas Paul Stéphane Sarközy de Nagy-Bocsa ( ; ; born 28 January 1955) is a French politician who served as President of France from 2007 to 2012. In 2021, he was found guilty of having tried to bribe a judge in 2014 to obtain information ...

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–

* Former

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– Gerhard Schroeder *

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–

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–

Sooronbay Jeenbekov Sooronbay Sharip uulu Jeenbekov (born 16 November 1958) is a Kyrgyzstani politician who served as the fifth president of Kyrgyzstan from 2017 until his resignation in 2020, following a week of protests. Prior to that he served as the Prime Minist ...

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– Viktor Orban *

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–

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–

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– Albert II * President of the

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–

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* Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia –

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–

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References

External links

{{2018 FIFA World Cup finalists

Opening ceremony An opening ceremony, grand opening, or ribbon-cutting ceremony marks the official opening of a newly constructed location or the start of an event.

FIFA World Cup opening ceremonies 2018 in Russian sport June 2018 sports events in Europe Ceremonies in Russia