FIFA to announce 2018 World Cup host cities next Saturday

 FIFA to announce 2018 World Cup host cities next Saturday

MOSCOW, Sept. 21 (Xinhua) -- The International Federation¹ of Football Associations (FIFA) confirmed on Friday it would announced the host cities of the 2018 World Cup in Russia next Saturday.

During a live broadcast on Russia's Channel One TV starting from 9:20 p.m. Moscow time (1720 GMT) on September 29, FIFA President Sepp Blatter and Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko will jointly² unveil the final 11 host cities among 13 candidates.

"I can say with pride that whichever host cities are finally selected, we believe that the entire country will win," Mutko said.

Officials from FIFA and Russia, as well as Russian athletes, football stars and celebrities³ will also attend the announcement ceremony.

Russia was awarded the right to host the 2018 World Cup in December, 2010. A total of 13 Russian cities, including Kaliningrad, St. Petersburg, Moscow, Yaroslavl, Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod, Saransk, Samara, Yekaterinburg, Rostov-on-Don, Volgograd, Krasnodar and Sochi are vying⁴ to host World Cup matches.

Mutko said in April that FIFA has allocated⁵ nearly 700 million U.S. dollars for the 2018 World Cup.

1 federation   

n.同盟，联邦，联合，联盟，联合会

参考例句：

• It is a federation of 10 regional unions.它是由十个地方工会结合成的联合会。
• Mr.Putin was inaugurated as the President of the Russian Federation.普京正式就任俄罗斯联邦总统。

2 jointly   

ad.联合地，共同地

参考例句：

• Tenants are jointly and severally liable for payment of the rent. 租金由承租人共同且分别承担。
• She owns the house jointly with her husband. 她和丈夫共同拥有这所房子。

3 celebrities   

n.（尤指娱乐界的）名人( celebrity的名词复数 )；名流；名声；名誉

参考例句：

• He only invited A-list celebrities to his parties. 他只邀请头等名流参加他的聚会。
• a TV chat show full of B-list celebrities 由众多二流人物参加的电视访谈节目

4 vying   

adj.竞争的；比赛的

参考例句：

• California is vying with other states to capture a piece of the growing communications market.为了在日渐扩大的通讯市场分得一杯羹，加利福尼亚正在和其他州展开竞争。
• Four rescue plans are vying to save the zoo.4个拯救动物园的方案正争得不可开交。

5 allocated   

adj. 分配的 动词allocate的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• The Ford Foundation allocated millions of dollars for cancer research. 福特基金会拨款数百万美元用于癌症研究。
• More funds will now be allocated to charitable organizations. 现在会拨更多的资金给慈善组织。