The Russian Football Union's director general, Aleksandr Alaev, urged football fans from across the world to ignore "some critical remarks" on the country hosting the tournament.
FIFA presidential candidate Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein of Jordan's request for Friday's election to be postponed because of an issue with the voting booths has been rejected by sport's highest tribunal.
Some of the men who might be candidates for FIFA president.
The victory celebration over, new FIFA president Gianni Infantino's first major decision in charge of the troubled world football organisation will be to appoint a secretary general, effectively a chief executive, to run day-to-day operations.
Sepp Blatter has told a Swiss newspaper he has not quit as FIFA president, adding to speculation he may try to stay on as head of world soccer's governing body that is gripped by a corruption scandal.
The date of May 27 will go down as one of the worst days in the history of world soccer's governing body FIFA, former presidential candidate Luis Figo said on Thursday.
The proposals outline what would effectively be a mini-World Cup, featuring eight international teams, every two years in addition to the traditional event.
Running highlights from FIFA's congress. World soccer's governing body has voted on a series of reforms and will elect a new president later on Friday (all times GMT): 13.30 The voting process is proving a long, drawn out affair. After an hour's voting, we have crawled to L for Latvia with little to get excited about apart from the brief appearance of Davor Suker, Golden Boot winner as the top scorer at the 1998 World Cup, as he cast Croatia's vote. Time then for a reminder that for a candidate to be elected in the first round, he must obtain at least 138 votes, two-thirds of the 207 votes cast. If this does not happen, a second round is held. This time, a simple majority -- 104 votes, which represents more than 50 percent of the votes -- is sufficient for a candidate to be elected. If no candidate gets that majority, the one with fewest votes will be eliminated and a new round will be held. This continues until one candidate obtains a majority. 12.45. Having begun his speech by promising to "die with my boots on", Sexwale ends it by withdrawing from the race, "I have got a surprise for you. My campaign ends today and I suspend my participation. With only four people it is your problem now." Markus Kattner, FIFA general secretary then reminds delegates of the voting procedure, reminding them not to photograph their ballot papers.
Former Portugal star Luis Figo has announced his intentions to challenge Sepp Blatter in the FIFA presidential elections.
Interpol said on Wednesday it has issued international wanted-person alerts for two former FIFA officials including Jack Warner and four corporate executives at the request of US authorities as part of a corruption probe.
Another wildcard has entered the pack of candidates challenging Sepp Blatter for the presidency of FIFA in May's election -- Mino Raiola, a soccer agent whose clients include Mario Balotelli and Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
"If there are people who don't like the organisation or don't like me, they will realise they have been wrong... they will realise that."
Six months ago Gianni Infantino was a low-profile right-hand man to European soccer boss Michel Platini. He was the striking, shaven-headed character who pulled balls out of glass pots during televised UEFA competition draws. Barely-known by the general public, he was also the man behind a complex attempt to force Europe's clubs to reign in their spending, but which ended up leaving fans and even club directors confused. On Friday, Infantino was chosen as the new president of FIFA, a position which made his predecessor Sepp Blatter as instantly recognisable as some of the world's leading statesman. It was a remarkable leap for the affable Swiss-Italian. The polyglot lawyer only entered the FIFA race in late October, one day before the deadline, as a stop-gap candidate after Platini had been placed under investigation for ethics violations.
"I will use all my strength and inspiration until my last working day to bring this ship back into safe harbour," Blatter is quoted by Walliser Bote as saying.
Xavi, who won the World Cup with Spain in 2010 and is seeing out his career in Qatar with top-flight club Al Sadd, said 48 teams would not be the right option for 2022, however.
FIFA president blasts critics, says salary not decided.
FIFA presidential candidate Luis Figo says he has no plans to quit his campaign.
FIFA presidential candidate Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein of Jordan said that soccer's governing body has been "decimated" by the recent wave of scandals and that he has heard from "many member associations" in the last 24 hours.
Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein said on Monday he would consider withdrawing from the FIFA presidential election race to allow a single candidate to challenge Sepp Blatter when the votes are cast at the FIFA Congress on May 29.
Prince Ali is standing against Sepp Baltter in Friday's election and although Blatter is strongly favoured to win.
FIFA presidential candidate Jerome Champagne has protested to football's world governing body about the number of observers allowed into the hall for Friday's election, saying he believed they were working for his rivals.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino told the 12 breakaway European Super League clubs on Tuesday that they could not be "half in, half out" of the established football system and must face up to the reality of their decision.
Will it be Cameroon's Issa Hayatou or Spain's Angel Maria Villar?
The news comes as little surprise as Sepp Blatter had dropped strong hints he would stand again and if he sees out his potential four-year term he will be 83 by the time of the next planned election in 2019.
The suspended president of the international football body believes only FIFA Congress can bar him, not the Ethics Committee.
FIFA's independent ethics committee has cleared the organisation's president Gianni Infantino of any alleged breach of its code, world soccer's governing body said on Wednesday.
Sepp Blatter, who will be 78 in March, hinted that UEFA president Michel Platini could succeed him even though the once-close relationship between the two has become strained in recent years.
Morocco has lodged a last-minute bid to host the 2026 soccer World Cup and will compete against a three-way bid from the United States, Mexico and Canada.
Lukaku was subjected to abuse during the first leg at Juventus "before, during, and after the penalty" he scored to earn Inter a 1-1 draw, the player's representatives said.
FIFA denied on Tuesday that the top lieutenant of its President, Sepp Blatter, or any other member its senior management made $10 million in bank transactions.
Longtime FIFA president Sepp Blatter is disappointed the global soccer body's appeal committee upheld his ban from the sport, he told a Swiss newspaper in an interview published on Friday.
Six soccer officials were arrested in Zurich on Wednesday and detained pending extradition to the United States over suspected corruption at soccer's governing body FIFA, the Swiss Federal Office of Justice (FCOJ) said in a statement.
Costa Rica has opened investigations into the president of the country's soccer federation who was among seven FIFA executives arrested in Switzerland on Wednesday on corruption charges brought by prosecutors in the United States.
Jerome Valcke, FIFA's often-outspoken secretary general, all but confirmed on Friday that he will be leaving his job when Sepp Blatter is replaced as president of world soccer's governing body next February.
FIFA's executive committee approved a package of planned reforms on Thursday aimed at cleaning up soccer's scandal-plagued world governing body, proposing integrity checks and term limits for senior officials and a new separation of policy and management positions.
Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter lost his appeal against a six-year ban for ethics violations, imposed amid the biggest corruption scandal to shake the world soccer body, the Court of Arbitration for Sport said.
CONCACAF's congress witnessed an outburst of support for incumbent Sepp Blatter.
Selected quotes from Swiss Gianni Infantino's first news conference after the former UEFA general secretary was elected president of scandal-hit world soccer's governing body FIFA on Friday:
The spotlight at next week's FIFA Congress will fall on the presidential election - but the real key to the future of football's beleaguered governing body is embedded in a document with the unglamorous title 'Draft statutes - Congress 2016'.
FIFA will carry out a feasibility study on holding the World Cup and the women's World Cup every two years after backing a proposal at its annual congress on Friday.
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