| Yana Pashaeva
FIFA banned Russia’s national team from participating in this summer’s World Cup, but it didn’t ban Russian fans from enjoying the tournament on TV. Last year, the governing body of the world’s most popular sport sold Russian broadcast rights to this summer’s World Cup to Match TV, an outlet owned by Gazprom-Media Holding, which is controlled by Gazprombank and linked to the state-owned energy company Gazprom.
The fact that Russians can watch the spectacle unfolding across the 16 stadiums in North America, much like viewers elsewhere around the world, belies the notion that some might have of a pariah nation cut off from the rest of the world by ironclad sanctions. Indeed, the World Cup is taking place against the backdrop of an intensifying debate over the wisdom and appropriateness of sanctions that had sidelined Russia from participating in international sport.
On Tuesday of this week, the International Olympic Committee provisionally lifted its suspension of the Russian Olympic Committee, making it easier for Russian athletes — who haven't competed under their national flag and anthem at the Olympics since 2016 — to qualify for the 2028 Games. A lot is still unknown, including whether they'll be allowed to use their flag and anthem, and it will be up to individual sports federations whether to let them compete at all. Earlier this year, FIFA President Gianni Infantino had stated that it was time to revisit the ban on Russian participation, which also barred it from seeking to qualify for the 2022 Qatar World Cup, because “it hasn’t achieved anything.” The game’s powerful European confederation (UEFA), with whom Infantino is frequently at odds these days, might not be so eager to lift the sanctions amidst the ongoing war in Ukraine.
But for Russian fans, most of the tournament’s 104 matches are available live and free on Match TV’s television channel and website. For roughly one-third of the matches, Match TV partnered with Kinopoisk, one of Russia’s largest streaming services, where broadcasts are available only to paid subscribers.
Football is the most popular sport in Russia, both to play and to watch, according to the Russian Ministry of Sport and media research company Mediascope. So, despite Russia’s absence from the tournament, there is still significant interest in the World Cup, as there is in plenty of other countries not participating because they failed to qualify, including neighboring Poland and Ukraine, and one of the sport’s traditional giants, Italy. The time difference, of course, poses a challenge (New York and Moscow are 7 hours apart; New York and the far-eastern city of Vladivostok, 14). “Guys, is anyone sleeping at all during this World Cup?!” Russian football player Fyodor Smolov, a former member of Russia’s national team, wrote on social media on July 1.
Anastasia, a football fan from Moscow who has watched every World Cup, told me that because of the time difference, she was able to catch only two matches per day during the group stage. “Every morning, though, the first thing I do is check the results of the games I missed,” she said. “Of course, Russia’s absence from the tournament changes the experience a bit. If our team were playing, I’d probably go watch their games in sports bars or at public screenings to share the emotions with other fans.”
Viewership in Russia now, and during the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, obviously, can’t compare to 2018, when Russia hosted the tournament. I witnessed that World Cup in Moscow myself and remember it warmly as a great sports celebration, with thousands of happy fans from all over the world flooding the city center — and with Russia not only participating but reaching the quarterfinals for the first time ever. According to Mediascope, 81% of Russians watched the World Cup in 2018. In 2022, that number dropped by more than half, to 38%. I reported for Slate in 2022 from a bar watch party in Moscow during the group-stage matches between England and Iran and the Netherlands and Senegal, and there were no crowds. It is still hard to say how viewership this year in Russia will compare to 2022. Match TV said that the group-stage matches were watched by 26 million Russians in total. Polls conducted by the Russian betting company PARI ahead of the tournament showed that 64% of Russians were planning to watch World Cup games, with almost half of respondents saying they were more interested in the tournament this year than in 2022. Brazil was the most popular team among respondents, followed by Argentina and Spain.
Interestingly, this year many Russians cheered for Uzbekistan, which reached the World Cup for the first time in its history. Support came even from Russian authorities. Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said, “By supporting Uzbekistan, we’re supporting Russia.” The main reasons are that Uzbekistan was the only former Soviet country in the tournament and that Uzbeks are one of the largest foreign diasporas in Russia. Also, at least five players on Uzbekistan’s national team have played in the Russian Premier League, the top tier of Russia’s football league system. I saw Russians on my Facebook feed who don't usually follow football posting about waking up at 5 a.m. Moscow time to watch Uzbekistan's first group stage game on June 18, where they scored their first-ever World Cup goal but ultimately lost to Colombia 3-1. “It doesn’t matter that they lost the first match. Uzbekistan, you’re already champions in my eyes!” one of my Facebook friends wrote.
This is probably why the game between Uzbekistan and Portugal on June 23 became the most-watched group-stage match of this World Cup in Russia. Match TV reported that it was watched by 6.6 million viewers (though the 8 p.m. Moscow kickoff and Portugal's involvement probably helped too). Unfortunately for Russian viewers, Uzbekistan lost all its games and didn’t make it out of the group.
Despite the ban, Russian media and sports experts have found ways to keep Russian football relevant to the World Cup conversation. One way is by highlighting ties between international players and Russia. Forbes Russia published a piece called “Our People at the World Cup” about 12 players from nine participating countries who play in the Russian Premier League. The list includes Mexico’s center-back César Montes and midfielder Luis Chávez; Brazil’s left back Douglas Santos and right winger Luiz Henrique; Cape Verde’s midfielder Kevin Pina and striker Gilson Benchimol; Colombia’s forward Jhon Córdoba; Congo’s winger Théo Bongonda; Panama’s center-back Edgardo Issac Fariña; Iran’s winger Mohammad Mohebi; Paraguay’s right-back Juan Cáceres; and Tunisia’s striker Hazem Mastouri. “So, Russia is represented at the World Cup,” Forbes concluded.
Russian media have also speculated that the Russian team would have made it out of the group, if it had played in the World Cup. “Now, as frustration over the Russian national team’s absence from any competition reaches a new high every day, it’s tempting to dream a little,” Russian outlet Sport Express wrote on June 28, arguing that Russia would have been ranked at least 25th among the 48 teams and would have advanced to the knockout stage.
Russian online media outlet Championat.com points out that since 2022, Russia has played eight matches against countries that qualified for the 2026 World Cup, including Uzbekistan, Jordan, Iran, Iraq and Qatar, with only one loss, to Egypt. In total, since the invasion, the Russian squad has played more than 20 games against foreign teams. After its most recent game, a 3-0 win against Trinidad and Tobago in Kaliningrad on June 9, a children’s choir symbolically sang “Goodbye, America,” the famous song by the Soviet rock band Nautilus Pompilius, while screens showed highlights of Russia’s team from past World Cups.
The absence of the national team at the World Cup is not a serious reason for Russian football fans to skip the tournament, even though many of them believe Russia’s ban is unfair and pointless. “How does it help end the conflict in Ukraine? What do you want to achieve by mixing politics and sport?” Russian journalist Alexander Rassokhin said, adding that he and others still follow the World Cup and discuss it at the water cooler. He said he is not a fan of the Russian Premier League — he follows the English Premier League and roots for England.
Another Russian journalist, Pyotr Shadrin, who has followed the World Cup since 1998, said that this year he even bought a World Cup sticker album and has been filling it in. He said Russians have already gotten used to the fact that their country does not compete in international tournaments. “Frankly, even before the ban, Russia didn’t qualify for every FIFA World Cup. People still watched the tournament anyway,” he said. He added that sports bars and pubs in Moscow are not packed with fans on match days, but he believes that will change once the quarterfinals begin.
So far, the 2026 World Cup has not met business expectations in Russia. Kommersant reported that sports bars in Russia lost 2% of customers from June 11 to 21 compared with the same period last year, citing data from Platform OFD, the largest fiscal data operator in Russia. Major cities saw even more significant losses: 6% in Moscow and 12% in Saint Petersburg. One reason may be rising prices tied to the war in Ukraine: according to Kommersant, the average bill in sports bars in Russia increased by 10% over the past year, meaning fewer people can afford to go out and watch a game. And plenty of people are simply too preoccupied with other problems to think about the World Cup — a weakening economy, rising taxes, intensified Ukrainian drone attacks on major cities and oil infrastructure in response to Russia's own attacks, and severe gas shortages across the country. These concerns may be affecting viewership more than the absence of the Russian team. Some fans I interviewed about the 2022 World Cup told me they no longer watch it at all — there are other problems to focus on, and the tournament feels like something very distant from their life.
As the World Cup enters its final stages, interest among Russians will inevitably grow, and sports bars expect traffic to pick up.
At the same time, Russian sports fans can also follow the ensuing debates over whether their athletes can eventually return to international competition.
Soon after the IOC provisionally lifted its suspension of the Russian Olympic Committee, Sky News reported, that FIFA will discuss lifting the ban on Russian teams in light of the IOC decision. Whether that indeed opens the door to Russia’s return for the 2030 World Cup is another matter.