<P> At the close of the World Cup Russia was widely praised for its success in hosting the tournament, with Steve Rosenberg of the BBC deeming it "a resounding public relations success" for Putin, adding, "The stunning new stadiums, free train travel to venues and the absence of crowd violence has impressed visiting supporters . Russia has come across as friendly and hospitable: a stark contrast with the country's authoritarian image . All the foreign fans I have spoken to are pleasantly surprised ." </P> <P> FIFA President Gianni Infantino stated, "Everyone discovered a beautiful country, a welcoming country, that is keen to show the world that everything that has been said before might not be true . A lot of preconceived ideas have been changed because people have seen the true nature of Russia ." Infantino has proclaimed Russia 2018 to be "the best World Cup ever", as 98% of the stadiums were sold out, there were three billion viewers on TV all around the world and 7 million fans visited the fan fests . </P> <P> FIFA, through several companies, sold the broadcasting rights for the 2018 FIFA World Cup to various local broadcasters . </P> <P> In the United States, the 2018 World Cup was the first men's World Cup whose English rights were held by Fox Sports, and Spanish rights held by Telemundo . The elimination of the US national team in qualifying led to concerns that US interest and viewership of this World Cup would be reduced (especially among "casual" viewers interested in the US team), especially noting how much Fox paid for the rights, and that US games at the 2014 World Cup peaked at 16.5 million viewers . During a launch event prior to the elimination, Fox stated that it had planned to place a secondary focus on the Mexican team in its coverage to take advantage of their popularity among US viewers (factoring Hispanic and Latino Americans). Fox stated that it was still committed to broadcasting a significant amount of coverage for the tournament . </P>

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