Earlier in the day a number of outlets reported that the Interior Ministry urged local authorities to ban public open space screenings of the World Cup for security reasons. If the regional governments want to proceed with screenings of the games, they should do so in a closed space, the ministry reportedly said.

"No strict ban on screenings of World Cup 2018 games has been introduced: they will simply be supervised and secured under the authority of Prefects and in close contact with local authorities, as it was done during 2016 Euro Cup," Collomb said on his Twitter.

According to the media reports, the ministry cited the threat of terrorism as the reason for the ban.

The 2018 FIFA World Cup will take place between June 14 and July 15 at 12 stadiums in the following Russian cities: Moscow, Kaliningrad, St. Petersburg, Volgograd, Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod, Samara, Saransk, Rostov-on-Don, Sochi and Yekaterinburg.