“[We are] satisfied with the way the tournament is going, [we] see [positive] emotions from our guests, it is the best evaluation. There is neither criticism of infrastructure, nor of pitches, or arenas, everything is working well. Four cities have already finished hosting matches, it’s a little sad, but the tournament is going on,” Sorokin said.

He added that "the numbers were incredible,” with over 1.5 million Fan IDs given out, about half of them to the foreign visitors.

Sorokin also praised volunteers' work at the tournament.

“We are especially grateful to the volunteers, they are our face, and they receive positive responses. We have a total of 17,040 volunteers working at 153 facilities,” he said.

The 2018 FIFA World Cup kicked off on June 14 and will continue until July 15, with the matches being played in 11 cities across Russia.

The group stage of the tournament finished on Thursday, and the first Round of 16 games will be held on Saturday.