One week to go before the big kick-off in Moscow and Vladimir Putin has hosted his annual Direct Line televised press conference in which he fields questions from ordinary citizens around Russia. He is cautiously optimistic that despite recent disappointments, the Russian team might surprise everyone as their judoka’s did when winning several gold medals in 2012.

We talk about the cancellation of the Israel-Argentina friendly, the bitter aftermath of which has been muddied by conflicting accusations and fake quotes.

We also discuss some pre-World Cup interviews with Paul Pogba and Danny Rose.

We speak to Eliot Rothwell in Moscow and Jonathan Liew in London about the coverage of the tournament and whether the future of the World Cup has begun to look precarious.

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