Russia yesterday pulled out of the race for the right to host the 2022 World Cup in order to concentrate on their bid for 2018.

Russia’s pull out was purely a formality as FIFA had already designated Europe for the 2018 edition after the United States dropped out of contention to concentrate on 2022.

“After we found out that only European countries are in contention to host the 2018 World Cup we decided to concentrate our efforts on that bid,” said RFU general manager Alexei Sorokin.

Russia are now in the running for 2018 along with England, and the joint bids from Spain-Portugal and Netherlands-Belgium.

FIFA will name the hosts of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups in Zurich, Switzerland, on December 2.

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