The Russian Railways company became an Official European Supporter of the upcoming 2018 FIFA World Cup, to be held in Russia from June 14 to July 15, the company’s statement said Thursday.  Russian Railways has been named by FIFA on Thursday, as an official sponsor of the 2018 World Cup, which is being held in the country in June and July.

FIFA said the state railway monopoly would be a third-tier regional sponsor of the event, joining fellow Russian companies Alfa-Bank and Rostelecom. The Russian Railways obtained the status of Official European Supporter of the 2018 FIFA World Cup. The agreement was signed by CEO and Chairman of the Board of JSC Russian Railways Oleg Belozerov, FIFA Chief Commercial Officer Philippe Le Floc’h and FIFA Director of Marketing Sales and Strategy Iain Downie,” the statement said.

According to the company, Russian Railways organizes transportation services for the tournament’s games, with a total of 75 free trains set to make 728 rides on 31 routes during the tournament. Russian Railways is offering 880,000 free journeys to match ticket holders traveling between venue cities and that half of those had already been booked, FIFA said in a statement.

It added that an additional 728 long-distance trains on 31 routes had been scheduled during the course of the tournament.

“Over 440,000 seats were offered to the fans in the free trains, and over 200,000 seats have been already booked,” the statement added, stressing that in order to book a free train ride fans need to obtain tickets to the games of the World Cup and receive their FAN ID.

This is the first time Russia will host the FIFA World Cup. The games will take place at 12 arenas in a total of 11 cities, namely Kaliningrad, Kazan, Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Rostov-on-Don, Samara, Saransk, Sochi, St.Petersburg, Volgograd, and Yekaterinburg.