eight years in the making and the twenty eighteen feet for world cup in russia is here the biggest event in football picks off in moscow matter of hours. fans from across the globe are being out in force in the russian capital reveling in the festive atmosphere. plus we have unique insight and analysis from one of the best minds in the game manchester united manager chose a marina. low

from the all to new center here in moscow this thursday june fourteenth you can get up to speed on global developments dot com now though it's the day that football fans worldwide have been waiting for the start of the twenty eight hundred fifty four world cup now just a couple of hours away over the coming weeks we'll bring you the best of the atmosphere from all of the host cities across the biggest country in the world so for now over to andrew farmer dottie's world cup h.q. overlooking central moscow. yes hello welcome is the kind down does continue at the start of this world cup we've got a few different things you hear. and we've already had a. very. for the a bit later on the

first place let's listen to see who else is covering this will probably just as we've reported all over russia to help her so firstly his b.r.c. line that's it i cover it and actually our ship the sound of elise the custodian in moscow there which of course host the night tightening match between russia the host and saudi arabia in the north of the country you've got a fairly he's in the hardest intake pearcy got a lovely view of the never river there so and also how could we forget take partridge is covering the south wrist and then it is in the result of sochi enjoying the subtropical sunshine i'm sure and of course we'll be joined by many other guests today not least peter schmeichel the former manchester united goalkeeper who we hear next hour we're told to help us with the build up to the name of this fantastic festival of sport ball well just about to get in the game now russia and saudi arabia they've both held their final training sessions and both say that they are going all out for victory an important game a georgian renia i was here as we said last hour and he's predicting that the

russians russians will get a victory against saudi arabia the first despite all the negativity in the russian press. if i was. shackles of i hope by sharing using a not so not so wrong i'll be happy because. no expectations no positivity no optimism everybody expects the world and it can be in this moment in in this hotel with this players preparing everybody for the. for their country pride well let's for that let's do it for the country let's do it for ourselves let's do it against the ones that don't believe in don't believe in the so i think can be can be a good thing for them you want my personal opinion i give them my personal opinion i think that. seven bits of. identity crisis in the russian team we are used at

least i think my generation used to have. the russian teams with a certain identity i think they lost a little bit of that identity there in the search of that talent is not in men's. but they have enough enough to win tonight they have enough to those through the the group phase of course later you will get the teams more talented with the probably the best the best teams in europe the best teams in south america and then becomes a huge a huge challenge but i would say that russia has has enough has enough to get. i would say probably the five points that you need to. hear it in when you're speaking to me last i hope be back up here in the studio to you this evening to give it his analysis of what happens at the legion and to study in tonight between

russia and saudi arabia stadium i have to say is one of my favorite in the world it is absolutely magnificent it has a splendid revamp to win it also looks pretty glorious during the summer sunrise this morning i think we got a few shots to show you what it was like and then also at the host of the tone final on the fifteenth of july.

yeah looks beautiful empty but it's even more beautiful as the fans arrive right down there at the moment for a sight of the leaves in a piece that actually i have scanned. the atmosphere's we can see and hear a certain building ahead of tonight's guy. but definitely the dream of tens of millions of russians is becoming a reality and senator have years ago i studio in a very cold december night it was december third two thousand and ten twenty four hours before i actually got married and not any one not in our crew not around not in the russian press not even in the english press that i spoke with on that day and in abundance no one believed that russia would get that world cup and you know what's written over there on top of the luzhniki stadium it says twenty eighteen feet for world cup in russia it begins in just under three hours the opening game russia again saudi arabia in this beautiful venue completely reconstructed for the world cup now looking like a proper football stadium as you just witnessed in that short video. obviously the

atmosphere here is building up we were here and now and a half ago thousands of fans from across the world of course mostly saudi arabia a lot of them have actually not seen them this much in the streets of moscow i roamed them for the last couple of days but here they are in numbers in massive numbers all of very positive all of their way up to mystic one guy actually told me that he would win one there. in the eighty ninth minute that we've probably too harsh on russia but i'm sure we will see a close game in any case you can see all the chanting that's by the way saudi arabia fans walking there we've seen chile we've seen through we see in argentina we've seen colombia even the nations that are not in the world cup like china huge attendance here by the fans one more little fun detail there's a goal of volunteer girl sitting just meters away from me and she greets the fans of teams in their language just spurring some absolutely crazy festivity right here down the street leading to the stadium and that's been the theme in moscow for the

past several days the energy in the streets is completely unbelievable i went down to the central moscow to see what it was like to be with the fans. was. awesome. ok. ok breaking news moscow has been taken over by friendly forces meeting fans from all over the world and i'm here on a mission chanting as part of football culture and i want to learn chance from different parts of the world. i don't know exactly what these guys a chance to usually but i know the chance will make them happy guys most.

good. thing i'm going to michigan you teach many of the egyptian chance that. it was. the back of your. mind. it was in the circle proper stop drop and stop being. i i. was sure i was going to. be. i wonder what they will be chanting tonight. i was.

the libyan friends in moscow one of the largest representations i was. going. to say was one of. the. fans there looking very happy yet throughout most of the well spanish fans did have a bit of a shock though on wednesday because the country's football federation did x. the head coach just two days before that writing game against portugal get an up or take he was sacked after accepting the job to lead we all madrid next season and will be replaced by fernando hierro well just a marine i think so the change of coach will have actually little impact on the spanish take the match tomorrow i think anything can happen we portray go we feel confident enough to play against spain and try to win but i know that spain with

the quality and the class of the players they have they also feel confident that they can beat anyone and there's a fan i wouldn't be. held if we lose against spain. but i would not also being having the feed spain i think we both are going to qualify. because. we have two of the strongest teams in the competition it is the pick of the of the bunch isn't it at the moment what did you make here of the fact that spain sent their manager yesterday just two days before this match and now is saying is a strange situation i don't know if spain said the manager of the manager second self we. there we everything happened between himself and real madrid i feel sorry for the manager of course because the you went

with the team for the last. two years and of course he would deserve to be with at the end but i also understand the position of. of the for the rishon they just give him a new contract for the future if you threw water at. the present of the for the ration was informed a couple of minutes before the club makes official is a strange process what i feel is there is a national team with such such a quality and such maturity and such an understanding of the majority of the players belong to real madrid too. but so long are some. top class players with a philosophy of play that comes since lewis are gone as so many years and then because for many years so i think the fact that he is not on the bench and this from them do you have on a story i don't think is going to make a huge difference. ok so our job is

a very pretty confident it won't just affect the spanish team we do play portugal tomorrow down in sochi in their first in the sub tropical sunshine is k.k. partridge good afternoon to you again kate one of the fun saying that about all of this they still pretty confident. hi there and you are actually just as i'm about to talk to you here in sochi you can hear the spanish journalists in the background discussing all the things that james a marine your head right. yes absolutely got sharp sacking two days before the start of the world cup a cooling off or taking the last of the replacements what effect really am saying we've seen a few of the from start to tire iron around here a lot of the others from the fans are over in the finals are going another part of sorts but here we are actually in the olympic park the olympic park is and it is in front of the venue basically where that match that was always going to be a crash match to big rivals you know the twenty ten champions spain against the european champions portugal always a big match anyway but now of course with all the heightened activity all that

heightened publicist e.g. to the fact that look we're taking has been sacked well the fans we saw a few of them outside spain's hotel that the hotel that they will use while they're actually here in sochi they're training actually a similar kind of region just sort of further across the the other side of the cry as it's known here but we saw some of those fans they didn't seem to sort of worried about anything they seem quite happy they're anticipating their heroes coming here and i think they're probably of a similar mood to jazz a merino actually in the fact that it's a case of it as intriguing as another story but on the other hand will it affect everybody the feeling is hopefully not hopefully that whole world cup spirit will sort of lift everybody and as a say that the twenty ten champions they won twice in europe as we know as well they should be able to regain that form the pundits very much are tipping spain will they weren't before this particular sacking saying that they were the complete team i mean obviously look at the bookmakers they are they're looking for germany they're perennially there as well of course in brazil at the top of the rankings but spain there is a case of they've been dented but will they still play take

a full moon i still do well the hope is that they still will and the feeling here looking around at the olympic park and a few of the fans are met on this balmy thirty degree day is that it's still going to be an absolute cracker was us playing an iconic venue that hosted enclosed the twenty four teams such a lympics and in a beautiful park as well where there's plenty to do as well as celebrate what one team will be celebrating and could it be a draw that's the. kind of course the weather terrific weather always has in. down there in sochi a party for us let's get some more views now on this whole saga with spain because the chief correspondent from gold dot com is there with this in the studio peter stone some. very welcome thanks for coming all this way up to our bird's eye view of moscow. the thing i love about a world cup is as much as there is lots to talk about on the pitch drama off it and we got off of it yesterday to spain and i'm sitting there going to their manager he saying anything like this in terms of the gravity of the story before a world cup is even bigger well as an irishman i have two thousand and two roy

keane walking out of the team you know mick mccarthy said to them or maybe in terms of impact in one country it's probably comparable to that no i'm not going to stand here and compare it to spain in terms of what they want to do with international tournament so among the top teams i've never ever seen anything quite like this and for me i think the federation of arctic maybe a little bit hastily although they feel sort of chastised by the fact that he's been negotiating behind their backs i think you have to ask yourself what's going to cause the team less disruption holding onto a manager who you know has done something wrong two days before the first game i'm sure we'll find out in terms of the comments on the pitch josie was saying he doesn't think it's going to impact the team because they play at such a high level anyway to them maybe it's a distraction but ultimately it won't affect their performance definitely destruction but those too many professionals within that span squad who have seen and done it all before not only for the national team or for the clubs as well so you look at players like sergio ramos who was one of the first to break the silence yesterday you know how many british reporters as he has he played under you know he

he can cope with that disruption you know when it comes to block it out those external distractions i don't think there are many better teams mentality wise and technique wise than spain didn't play the same way for maybe about ten years now since louis aragon yes took over the job since you were two thousand and i suppose when he started in on those barcelona players so there's a familiarity within the span group and they've got good experience with players like i say like ramos and yes they should be able to. to coach the other guys along there among my favorites for the tournament i think suck on a second too much man for man sure who are your favorites tonight then because. in the russian press nobody seems to be packing russia very pessimistic it's the worst thing they've seen in a long time i just wonder from your international perspective the western media thing to be a bit more forgiving and seem to be putting more emphasis on the fact that russia have got home supporters say well i think the big problem for russia is that they're without competitive football because they qualified automatically sent nobody knows how good they are because if they had to qualify for this sort of it

then would they have got here you look at months from within the squad they probably wouldn't have had their better than sort of fifteen sixteen other european teams who didn't make it i don't think they are that said they're here now so they have to give it their best shot they've got the best possible opportunity to get three points against saudi arabia who by some distance are the weakest team in the group and probably the weakest team in the entire championships so stern a chance are to come obviously against your guy in particular but also egypt especially if mohamed salah is past fifty that particular encounter is so vital for churches of the boys to get off to a great start tonight you know a great level of support been on the subways and you can already see the signs make the ways to the stadium and to be russia's support and it's just just a matter whether the twelfth man can get them over the line. and generally speaking about the atmosphere in moscow you said you arrived here a couple of days yeah as it matched your expectations mean what were you expecting this it's not my first time to moscow i was here you know i've been here a few times and i love the city i love looking around it and i love walking through it but it's on another level these last couple of days you know obviously red

squares because for a national day i think. the streets in a row red square by the shopping center go shopping center just a revolution square absolutely packed with all different nationalities you know if you count so many peruvians australians colombians mexicans argentinians and everybody is here everybody seems to you know got their flights into moscow before they move on elsewhere it's been beautiful to see he'll be aware of this in the run up to this world cup i know it happens with every. major told me that there was a new awful lot of negative press particularly in the west about russia ahead of this world cup i mean if people just listen to that nobody would be here he would day but the reality so far is very different well you know for me i don't want to sound too corny here before paul i think is a great unifier when it comes to people of different nationalities you know if you walk down the street you see a guy would in egypt since up with cell it's a ten on the bike you know you know you know he appreciates good players good footballers and it gives people to something to bond over so i think when you overcome maybe any stereotypes that people have about a particular host country whether that be for an olympic games or for

a football tournament i want to get here on the ground. there magical you know you know this is not my first world cup to cover but i always count it as a privilege and an honor to be here growing up as like i said west of ireland as a little boy i never i never dreamed for a second i would get to be here so i cherish every second of it and finds they don't make a trip so far spend so much money on tickets on transport and hotels. you know it'll be the making for for a lot of fans if you get you know a trip of a lifetime it is and it is such a spectacle even coming into work today on the metro d.c. entertainment in itself isn't it seeing all the fans because it is latin american fans with big hats big scarves big flag does already come in huge numbers so i think if you watch the euros in twenty sixteen people were so surprised by the scale of the support for iceland i think peru are going to be that team at the world cup everywhere you go disprove your fans overseas their first qualifying and one forty years are so i think they're going to add a lot of color to the top of the for your every day muscovites must be wondering what's going on you know every metro train is packed with football jerseys yeah i

love it i mean the color of the atmosphere of international tournaments at this is really not of like it on the page you looking forward to seeing most in terms of playing well i'm in moscow throughout the tournament so i've got the privilege of seeing all the big hitters so start well maybe rush out a big server russia tonight and then i get to see portugal of course always a danger against iraq or that i'm see in denmark and france and see in belgium and serbia and brazil. germany mexico so i have to mention that already in senegal i'm seeing it again from a group between the two stadiums from the. spires act so i get to see neymar. i get to see christianity and i'll do of course a little messy so like i say there's not nothing compares to it it to see these guys you know put themselves on the line for their national teams and and put themselves through so many games and such a source short space of time really looking forward to getting gold i know i'm jealous very good for the. you know if they're listening not working they would. face a look many thanks for coming in any time much pleasure stay there for the moment

but we can show you now i think some of the other great players are going to grace the field over the next month even russia. for the last decade. one of them and messi they were the two best players in in the planet they did amazingly well for their clubs. they tried and of course portugal won it but you know they try to give the best of them to their countries and i think they're both arrives in this world cup probably as the last one. you think this is their last chance to win a world cup i don't see of course kris jenner by the physical point of view is. and. superman then eat candy if you want. but four more years at the highest level to come back to the next world cup i feel i should heart glee every week to three matches

a week but for long the real madrid. to resist to all of their forty years later to come at the highest level i've seen car so i think they're going to put everything in these in these world cup to try to try to finish their careers with the only thing that they don't have the. because no one is is a world champion but of course they're not the only say that superstars of this well help in fact we can take a look at some of us. some

of the smaller teams have got their own stars to you know at least around in iraq a they face each other up and simply disappear tomorrow night and their forces they surround he said i would look in the banks of the river they're very beautiful. a good atmosphere but also this going tomorrow at crucial for both teams. yes andrew really crucial because these are two teams coming into it in a very tough group actually with spain and with portugal although maybe they'll front that chances of disrupting spain of course their manager losing his job just a day before the tournament began maybe that's not destruction in the camp iran and russia they come into this tournament both of them with very good defensive records irradiance in their ten qualifying games only conceded one goal although the older

scored ten so very tight and compact team the moroccans themselves also conceding only six goals actually in the six qualifying games so tomorrow's game expected to be a very tight very close between the two sides radiance of course led by the portuguese coach carlos cure or she's been there since the last world cup in fact. wall the. that the feds feature stars such as. the u. ventus players well so they'll be some good players on the show as well i'll be rooting for iran my mum my mother's a radius so i caught. me a little bit biased there but it should be a good start to the proceedings here it simpy does but for this world cup where also see so many fans in the city today not just from a rather morocco we've seen colombian founds we've seen. peruvians people from all

parts of the world coming here and really taking part in this festival of football we've been hearing people blowing horns up and down the street here in this part of pieces by going to some lovely sunny day everyone out enjoying themselves and really trying to not just learn about each other's cultures but also to enjoy what should be a month a fantastic football. should be i think that was a truly the first in moscow sorry some places but she said i'm getting confused already not the millions of russians hosting the world cup it's a dream come true but that hasn't always been the case it did take a bit of grace and determination to get it before getting established here in the first place party did manage to trace the roots of the game here in russia and it leads to all of the places scotland isn't a richard at. the end of the nineteenth century so the russian empire his first official football match he just played as

a hippodrome in st petersburg in between horseracing the public reaction that it wasn't such a beautiful game. gentlemen sportsmen in white outfits were running round in the mud splashing down with food forcing him to do it and soon turned into chimney sweeps there was unremittingly after among the pomp and. over a decade later things began to change football. started to gain a foothold in russia but not without some serious help from a russian born scottish merchant and sports enthusiast named after the macpherson and so in fact the history of russian football can be traced all the way back to glasgow shipbuilding was booming here back in the day in the mid nineteenth century and it was one of the shipyard owners murdoch's fierce and who was recruited by the russians sought to become an engineer with the roll fleet it's his grandson of who is to become the leading light in promoting football in russia and to help me

unbearable the story i've managed to find and knowledgeable enthusiastic from the clan mcphearson itself sandy let's face it after him self he started up football in russia organized leagues use chairman of the association for two years we are very proud of him we're very proud who it is important to the macpherson's and to scotland at large but a scotsman was there to start off russian football how does it make you feel thinking about those links or i think it's very proud i've personally i've never been in russia but i would love to go one day we'll never know when they make a pilgrimage i think we should be watching the world cup with great interest i think sport has a marvelous uniting influence throughout the world probably the two greatest things in sport are the olympic games and the football world cup we bring nations together the life of our macpherson and it miserably due to his prominence and position in the russian empire revolutions swept the country and he was imprisoned by the

bolsheviks he died of time in jail in one thousand nine hundred it's a known where his body was buried but in the loo theer in smolensk cemetery in st petersburg there's a senator in his honor. we also found the great granddaughter of arthur macpherson lady betty glass who only very recently discovered she was related to the footballing. trailblazer it was a great discovery because i know about him but very little about what he did until fairly recently he must have put a lot and. it's good it's good or clint's view because it's really russia is such a big country that it's amazing that the influence yeah. so that is somebody who did so much as had his is it is recognized as such a place to the world cup it might be worth remembering the remarkable story of all

from macpherson without him the tournament might not be happening here and. same for scotland you're watching our special coverage of the ball count here on our t.v. from our special studios we've got them all over the country for you in cities giving you a taste the reaction throughout this big day for russia but it's on when we should just again remind you just kickoff in about two and a half hours from now when russia take on society right we'll be back next hour boy inside and out.