Russia cautiously optimistic for World Cup 2018

The Russian 2018 bidding committee’s delegation has arrived in Zurich, where on Thursday FIFA will vote the hosting countries for the World Cups in 2018 and 2022.

“Our report largely describes what the state of affairs is now. The World Cup will be held in almost eight years. Of course, many changes will occur and we have submitted all the documents signed by the government that these changes are guaranteed to happen,” Russia's World Cup 2018 Bid Chief Aleksey Sorokin told RT on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, local experts are remaining cautiously optimistic about Russia’s chances."The attitude towards the Russian bid is very loyal everywhere, but nobody is promising to vote for Russia," former FIFA vice-president Vyacheslav Koloskov told the Sport-Express newspaper. "Everybody is very cautious. That is why it is only possible to guess the preferences of different members of the executive committee.""I expect that we will start with seven votes, give or take one vote. And we would end up with twelve votes [just enough to claim the World Cup].""Hopefully Russia will advance to the final round, in which Russia would most likely compete with the bid of Spain and Portugal."Meanwhile, former Manchester United great Andrey Kanchelskis says he is confident his country will get the nod.RT’s Richard van Poortvliet caught up with the star to speak about his expectations.