Today is the world cup final. I have looked at the apartments and most of them are not watching the game or watching something else. Isn’t soccer popular in Russia ?
I guess football is as popular in Russia as it is in most other countries in the world. It’s probably just that the participants here is not that interested in the game 
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Russia and any teams affiliated to the Russian FA are banned from any UEFA or FIFA competitions. I don’t know if any Russian media will be allowed to broadcast the competition. Further to this this also applies to the Olympics although Russian atheletes will be allowed to compete under the Olympic Flag. With the Euro Qualifiers taking place soon it will be interesting if they will be broadcast in Russia.
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I saw only one apartment watching the game, I think it’s one of the Russian apartments. So it’s either broadcast in Russia or they are watching in foreign TV.
I discovered 2: Berlin/Tokyo and Ksu/Nikita
@Justice. This may help Match TV has the rights for broadcasting in Russia it is available for 299 Rubles per month. Source worldcup glory. As it is a Pay Per view this may explain why different realms are not viewing the games.
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Don’t they have access to foreign TV channels in Russia ?
Only if they use VPN’s which are also illegal in Russia
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I mean cable and satellite TV. Even before internet most of the world could access foreign TV channels using those options.
No, most channels are state owned or state friendly like Gazprom media
They did have channels like Discovery and Fox but they was Russian versions showing state acceptable programming but since the invasion of Ukraine they have been disab__d
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Waw. Blocking internet is doable but did the Russian government figure out how to block satellite signals as well?
Who cares? 
Argentina did it…
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Well deseved overall
I think basketball should follow soccer’s lead. Maybe break ties with a free throw shooting contest.
If they have and use a VPN they probably can watch foreign coverage,
It’s very rare that a basketball game ends with a tie. I was reading an interesting article explaining why soccer is less popular in the US than basketball. It comes down to advertising. Basketball games have more break times than soccer so advertising companies can make more profits by interrupting the game to show commercials.
I was trying for sarcasm, but now that you mention it, the NBA has had seven ties in the last seven days. It is not that rare. And when they do, they settle the tie by playing….basketball.
Maybe not so rare but way less common than soccer.
Who cares about a final Argentina vs. France beside of argentinian or french fans ?
Russia is banned and Ukraine has not made it to the world cup, so there is no real surprise that most of them are not interested.
And if you recognize that they are not watching the final, you most probably are not watching it too.
So there is the answer.