OREANDA-NEWS.  January 19, 2012. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin met briefly with FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter and UEFA President Michel Platini before his meeting with football fans.

Transcript: Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon, friends. First of all, I’d like to congratulate all Russian sports fans and, and football fans in particular, on the 100th anniversary of the Russian Football Union. The union was established on January 19, 1912 here in St Petersburg. Please welcome FIFA President Mr Blatter and UEFA President Mr Platini, who also happens to be an outstanding football player beloved by fans across the world. On your behalf and on behalf of all football fans I’d like to thank Mr Blatter and Mr Platini for the honour that FIFA has extended to Russia, of hosting the 2018 World Football Championship.

We have just met and had a brief conversation with FIFA and UEFA presidents, Minister of Sport Vitaly Mutko and Sergei Fursenko. We spoke about your involvement in FIFA World Cup preparations. I expect that the heads of football fan clubs, as well as all football fans, will take part in preparations for the world football championship, and will help make it a festive event for all lovers of this remarkable sport. I’m confident that we will display the very best of our hospitality when we welcome fans from other countries. I know that football fans are very special people, and your success will carry even more weight if you manage to maintain civility and prove that Russia has the ability to organise events such as this, and very hospitably at that, despite the controversial nature of such competitions. Hospitality is inherent in the nature of all peoples of Russia. I hope that things will turn out exactly like I said.

Let me remind you that we intend to hold the world football championship in four geographical zones and 13 cities. I told Mr Blatter and Mr Platini that we will meet with the heads of our football fan clubs, and they were very pleased to hear about it: it came as a surprise to them.