"At the moment I think that Russia is favorite in the race for the World Cup. The bids of all candidates have three sides – technical, commercial and political. And in the political aspect, the Russians have shot ahead," Radnedge said.

Besides Russia, England, the US and two joint bids – Spain/Portugal and the Netherlands/Belgium are also in the running for the 2018 event.

Keir Radnedge

"At the moment people are speaking only about Russia and England as possible candidates. And no one pays much attention to a joint bid of Spain and Portugal. FIFA stressed it many times that they don’t like joint bids much," the journalist stressed.

"Previous tournaments showed that there are many problems connected with the implementation of joint bids and FIFA does not want to make similar mistakes. Moreover there are comprehensive bids of single countries," he added.

Radnedge also said that the English bid should not be written off as the situation in the country is different in comparison with the time they applied for World Cup 2006.

"Of course England has a chance. When the country was applying for the World Cup 2006, its bid had strong opposition from most of the English press. Nowadays there is nothing of the kind: there is criticism, but it does not cause as much harm as before," he said.

The host of the World Cup will be announced on December 2.