Russian railways named as official World Cup sponsor

ZURICH (Reuters) - Russian Railways has been named as an official sponsor of the 2018 World Cup, which is being held in the country in June and July, global soccer body FIFA said on Thursday.

(Reuters)

FIFA said the state railway monopoly would be a third-tier regional sponsor of the event, joining fellow Russian companies Alfa-Bank and Rostelecom.

Russian Railways is offering 880,000 free journeys to match ticket holders travelling between venue cities and that half of those had already been booked, FIFA said in a statement.

It added that an additional 728 long-distance trains on 31 routes had been scheduled during the course of the tournament.

(Writing by Brian Homewood in Bern; Editing by Toby Davis)