Hilariously, we don't play it that well on international level, which produces a lot of criticism for the national team. Because many ppl care about it, and we don't produce many wins :)
There are a lot of fans, and for the world cup time, even ppl who don't follow soccer started to. Like I've never cared about soccer in my life, yet I've already visited two games. There're many people like me.
When ppl say that Russia is infected with football for the time of World Cup, they're not far from being right.