The 2018 World Cup begins in Russia this week, with football at last having a chance to take center stage after a run-up dogged by accusations of bribery, geopolitical tensions, concerns about racism and homophobia in Russian football, worries about hooliganism, and problems with freedom of the press. 

For millions of people, the World Cup is remembered for epic highs and lows from across the years and decades: Hurst's hat-trick, Maradona's Hand of God, Gazza's tears, Baggio's penalty miss, Zidane's final goals, and final headbutt.

Storyful will be there to monitor all the World Cup activity on social media. We’ll be documenting the big stories, but also watching for memes on the sidelines. Will it be another summer of golden moments, to be remembered for years to come? Or have the shadow of FIFA corruption and the machinations of Putin's Russia made such innocent joy a thing of the past?

To discuss all this and more, Laura Byrne is joined by investigative journalist [Hajo Seppelt](https://twitter.com/hajoseppelt), of German broadcaster ARD, who was instrumental in reporting extensive doping in Russia. He was earlier denied entry to Russia by authorities, but FIFA intervened and it looks like he’ll be there. We also speak to [Eliot Rothwell](https://twitter.com/EliotRothwell), an ESPN reporter based in Moscow, who tells us that the ordinary Russian fan just wants to watch good football. Our analysis is provided by JJ Worrall, Storyful’s Trends Editor.