ROME, February 7. /TASS, Andrey Kartashov/. FIFA President Gianni Infantino told TASS he wanted to thank Russian President Vladimir Putin for the honor to be awarded with the Order of Friendship.

Putin signed a decree on Wednesday to award FIFA President Infantino with the Order of Friendship. According to the decree, the FIFA president was awarded with the Order of Friendship for his "enormous contribution in the organization of the 2018 FIFA World Cup."

"Big honor. Incredible," Infantino told TASS. "I will thank President Putin. Unbelievable, not deserved but very, very humbled and proud."

Last summer Russia hosted its first-ever FIFA World Cup, which kicked off in Moscow with a remarkable opening show at Luzhniki Stadium on the evening of June 14 and ended with a spectacular final match, played also at the Luzhniki Stadium, where France confidently defeated Croatia 4-2 to win the much-coveted World Cup Trophy.

Russia selected 11 host cities as the venues for the matches of the 2018 World Cup and they were Moscow, St. Petersburg, Sochi, Kazan, Saransk, Kaliningrad, Volgograd, Rostov-on-Don, Nizhny Novgorod, Yekaterinburg and Samara.

FIFA President Infantino said after the world championship that Russia staged "the best World Cup ever." According to the Russian Federal Agency for Tourism, some 2.9 million foreign visitors arrived in Russia last summer for the FIFA World Cup.

In late December, FIFA announced in its statement that the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia set a new record of audience in the history of world football championships as over half of the world’s population watched matches on TV at home, out of home or on digital platforms.