Russians actively followed the tournament and incessantly supported the host team.

MOSCOW, July 18, 2018. Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) presents the data of a survey devoted to the 2018 FIFA World Cup held in Russia from June 14 to July 15. 

More than half of Russians (54%) followed the match between France and Croatia: 52% did it at home or at work; 1% in a café or bar; 1% in a fan zone. Almost three-quarters of Russians (72%) followed the broadcasts of the World Cup.  

An overwhelming majority (91%) supported the Russian team. The most favorite teams were also Croatian (37%) and French (34%) teams. Russians showed interest in Belgian and Brazilian players (11%, for each).

When the Russian team dropped out of competition, Russians started to support France (12%), 11% cheered for Croatia.  However the majority (69%) did not support any other team after the Russian team’s loss to Croatia.

According to respondents, the best players of the 2018 World Cup are Igor Akinfeev (19%) and Artem Dzyuba (13%). Foreign players are mentioned less often: Luka Modric– 5%, Kylian Mbappe – 2%, Cristiano Ronaldo - 1%.

Twenty-nine percent of respondents consider that the Russian team has had the best domestic performance. This is followed by France (23%) and Croatia (21%).

Medialogia has drawn up a rating of mentions of footballers on social media: the most talked-about figures are Lionel Messi (835,000 mentions), Igor Akinfeev (782,000), Cristiano Ronaldo (773,000), and Mohamed Salah (764,000). Russian federal mass media often mentioned Cristiano Ronaldo (37,013 mentions), Artem Dzyuba (36,851) and Igor Akinfeev (30,411). Russian team got most of mentions on social media (2,0 mln); Croatia was mentioned less often (1,1 mln). A total number of 892,500 publications in the Russian mass media and 66 million social media mentions (Russian segment) were analyzed.

The VCIOM-Sputnik survey was conducted on July 16, 2018, and involved 1,600 Russians aged 18 and over. The survey was telephone-based and was carried out using stratified dual-frame random sample based on a complete list of landline and mobile phone numbers operating in Russia. The data were weighted according to selection probability and social and demographic characteristics. The margin of error at a 95% confidence level does not exceed 2.5%. In addition to sampling error, minor changes in question wording and different circumstances arising during the fieldwork can introduce bias into the survey.

Social media monitoring and analysis were carried out by Medialogia Company. The period of study was June 14 – July 15, 2018. Mentions from Twitter, Vkontakte, Odnoklassniki, Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, Telegram and posts in forums and blogs were taken into account to build a rating of mentions on social media.  The rating of mentions in the Russian mass media is based on the Medialogia database (over 45,000 sources).

* In late May-early June 2018 the question wording was “Are you going to watch the 2018 World Cup?”; from June 16 to July 12 the question wording was “Do you watch the 2018 World Cup broadcasts?

Note: Using materials from the site www.wciom.ru or wciom.com, as well as distributed by VCIOM, the reference to the source (or hyperlink for the electronic media) is obligatory! The use of the Medialogia system content, fully or partially, must be accompanied by the reference to the Medialogia Company.