GENEVA, September 26. /ITAR-TASS/. President of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) Michel Platini will be the chief coordinator of Russia’s organization of the 2018 World Cup on behalf of FIFA, world’s football top executive said on Friday.

Speaking at a news conference following FIFA Executive Committee in Zurich, FIFA President Sepp Blatter said that Platini will chair Bureau 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia, which is a coordinating body on the organization of the global football event that would take place in Russia in less than four years.

FIFA chief coordinator on the organization of the recently concluded 2014 World Cup in Brazil was Eugenio Figueredo, who is the president of the South American Football Cinfederation (Conmebol). Platini was one of the four members of the Bureau 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil.

Russia won the bid to host the 2018 World Cup over three years ago in a tight race against the joint bid from England, Portugal and Spain and the joint bid on behalf of Belgium and the Netherlands.

Shortly before Brazil’s fabulous city of Rio de Janeiro dropped the curtains on the 2014 World Cup with the final Germany-Argentina clash on July 13, the baton of the global football tournament’s hosting nations was passed on to Russia.

The symbolic hand-over ceremony of the right to host the World Cup tournament was held at the iconic 74,700-seat capacity Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro and was attended by FIFA President Blatter, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff and Russian President Putin.

Following an official ceremony held in September 2012 and attended by Blatter, Russia eventually selected 11 out of the earlier proposed 13 cities, excluding Krasnodar and Yaroslavl. The final list of the 2018 World Cup host cities includes Moscow, St. Petersburg, Sochi, Kazan, Saransk, Kaliningrad, Volgograd, Rostov-on-Don, Nizhny Novgorod, Yekaterinburg and Samara.