Alexey Sorokin, chief executive of the organising committee for the Russian 2018 World Cup, played down U.K. and Russia tensions affecting the 2018 World Cup, as London considers boycotting the event to protest the poisoning of a former Russian double agent on British soil. Alexey Sorokin, chief executive of the organising committee for the Russian 2018 World Cup, played down U.K. and Russia tensions affecting the 2018 World Cup, as London considers boycotting the event to protest the poisoning of a former Russian double agent on British soil.