Balanced groups drawn for Russia 2018

Following a long road of qualifying joy and heartache, the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia™ has finally snapped into focus after the Final Draw on 1 December in Moscow’s Kremlin State Palace.

Hosts Russia will open the event against Saudi Arabia at Moscow's Luzhniki Stadium on 14 June in Group A, while defending champions Germany were drawn into a tough Group F along with Mexico, Sweden and Korea Republic. According to the November FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking, the toughest group is Group D which has France, Australia, Peru and Denmark.

The Final Draw ceremony took place inside the walls of the Kremlin with Gary Lineker hosting and an array of high-profile names on hand to assist with the draw. Legends representing the eight previous World Cup-winning nations and the hosts – France’s Laurent Blanc, England’s Gordon Banks, Brazil’s Cafu, Italy’s Fabio Cannavaro, Uruguay’s Diego Forlan, Germany’s Miroslav Klose, Argentina’s Diego Maradona, Spain’s Carles Puyol and Russia’s Nikita Simonyan – joined Lineker on stage.

In the audience watching were dignitaries such as FIFA President Gianni Infantino, Lothar Matthaeus, Pele, Samuel Eto’o, Ronaldo and many more.

Thirty one days after the opening contest, the new champion will lift the Trophy after the Final in Moscow, again at the famed Luzhniki.

The kid who was signed on a napkin

“When I saw him at the airport, I said to myself: ‘This kid’s too small to play football.’ I thought they’d tricked me.” When the kid started kicking a ball, however, any doubts about his ability were quickly dispelled.

Now, over 15 years later, the diminutive genius in question is the proud owner of five FIFA Ballons d’Or, while the man recalling the very first day he set eyes on him is the proud owner of a napkin, a very valuable napkin, one that changed the history of FC Barcelona.

That man is Horacio Gaggioli, a football agent long based in Spain, who had heard great things from his Argentinian partners of a very talented boy from Rosario by the name of Lionel Messi. The kid was only 11 when those reports started coming through, which was too young by Gaggioli’s reckoning.

Two years later, however, and he was ready to cross the Atlantic, as Gaggioli explained in an interview with FIFA.com: “The family wanted him to try out with a European team, in whichever city I was living in so that he’d have a contact there. At the time I was about to go and work for a company in Madrid and I asked them to hold on so I could sort out my future and see where he could have his trial. If I ended up going to the capital, we’d have a try-out with Real Madrid or Atletico.”

FIFA PRESIDENT SEPP BLATTER TO RESIGN

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FIFA president Sepp Blatter is resigning as president of FIFA amid a growing corruption scandal, he announced on Tuesday at a surprise press conference.

"While I have a mandate from the membership of FIFA, I do not feel that I have a mandate from the entire world of football — the fans, the players, the clubs, the people who live, breathe and love football as much as we all do at FIFA," he said. "Therefore, I have decided to lay down my mandate at an extraordinary elective Congress."

There will be a congress of FIFA members and a new president will be elected, at which time he will step down the post he has held since 1998. This will take place sometime between December of 2015 and March of 2016, FIFA says.

Blatter said he will work on "driving far-reaching, fundamental reforms" before he steps down. 

"FIFA needs a profound overhaul," he said.

It's a shocking move. Two days after nine current and former FIFA officials were arrested in a $150 million bribery scandal, Blatter defiantly stood for a fifth term and was reelected in a landslide. Now, less than a week later, he's quitting.

Here's Blatter's full statement announcing his intention to resign:

I have been reflecting deeply about my presidency and about the forty years in which my life has been inextricably bound to FIFA and the great sport of football. I cherish FIFA more than anything and I want to do only what is best for FIFA and for football. I felt compelled to stand for re-election, as I believed that this was the best thing for the organisation. That election is over but FIFA’s challenges are not. FIFA needs a profound overhaul.

While I have a mandate from the membership of FIFA, I do not feel that I have a mandate from the entire world of football – the fans, the players, the clubs, the people who live, breathe and love football as much as we all do at FIFA.

Therefore, I have decided to lay down my mandate at an extraordinary elective Congress. I will continue to exercise my functions as FIFA President until that election.

The next ordinary FIFA Congress will take place on 13 May 2016 in Mexico City. This would create unnecessary delay and I will urge the Executive Committee to organise an Extraordinary Congress for the election of my successor at the earliest opportunity. This will need to be done in line with FIFA’s statutes and we must allow enough time for the best candidates to present themselves and to campaign.

Since I shall not be a candidate, and am therefore now free from the constraints that elections inevitably impose, I shall be able to focus on driving far-reaching, fundamental reforms that transcend our previous efforts. For years, we have worked hard to put in place administrative reforms, but it is plain to me that while these must continue, they are not enough.

The Executive Committee includes representatives of confederations over whom we have no control, but for whose actions FIFA is held responsible. We need deep-rooted structural change.

The size of the Executive Committee must be reduced and its members should be elected through the FIFA Congress. The integrity checks for all Executive Committee members must be organised centrally through FIFA and not through the confederations. We need term limits not only for the president but for all members of the Executive Committee.

I have fought for these changes before and, as everyone knows, my efforts have been blocked. This time, I will succeed.

I cannot do this alone. I have asked Domenico Scala to oversee the introduction and implementation of these and other measures. Mr. Scala is the Independent Chairman of our Audit and Compliance Committee elected by the FIFA Congress. He is also the Chairman of the ad hoc Electoral Committee and, as such, he will oversee the election of my successor. Mr. Scala enjoys the confidence of a wide range of constituents within and outside of FIFA and has all the knowledge and experience necessary to help tackle these major reforms.

It is my deep care for FIFA and its interests, which I hold very dear, that has led me to take this decision. I would like to thank those who have always supported me in a constructive and loyal manner as President of FIFA and who have done so much for the game that we all love. What matters to me more than anything is that when all of this is over, football is the winner.

The shock announcement comes a day after the New York Times reported that U.S. law enforcement believes Blatter's top deputy, Jerome Valcke, transferred $10 million in bribe money to accounts controlled by arrested ex-official Jack Warner. Valcke was not arrested and isn't accused of any wrongdoing, and both FIFA and Valcke denied that he authorized the payment. 

While the corruption allegations almost exclusively related to activity in North and South America, Blatter was under intense criticism for presiding over an organization that U.S. attorney general Loretta Lynch said was plagued by "rampant, systemic, and deep-rooted" corruption.