The tournament is traditionally used as a warm-up for the following year's World Cup and features the home nation, the winners of six continental tournaments and the reigning FIFA World Cup holders.

The eight teams have been split into two groups of four.

Group winners and runners-up meet in the semi-finals, with the final to be held at the Krestovsky Stadium in Saint Petersburg on July 2.

Other stadia due to be used include the Kazan Arena, the Otkritie Arena in Moscow and the Fisht Olympic Stadium in Sochi.

Hosts Russia, New Zealand and Mexico will compete in Group A alongside Portugal, who will be led by reigning FIFA men’s player of the year Cristiano Ronaldo.

World Cup winners Germany are in Group B alongside Chile, Cameroon and Australia.

Action is due to begin tomorrow with Russia taking on New Zealand in Saint Petersburg.

In the build-up to the tournament, the hosts have faced mounting fears over the threat of hooliganism and the alleged exploitation of workers.

The country will be hoping to avoid crowd trouble after numerous altercations were reported between football fans at the 2016 European Championships in France.

Particularly vicious clashes broke out outside the stadium in Marseille between fans of Russia and England before the match between the two.

A fan-ID service applicable for all those entering Russia will help reduce problems, it is hoped.

Yesterday, Human Rights Watch (HRW) claimed that construction workers building stadiums in Russia face exploitation and labour abuses.

A 34-page report, entitled "Red Card: Exploitation of Construction Workers on World Cup Sites in Russia", alleges that workers on six World Cup stadium construction sites faced unpaid wages either in full or part.

It also alleges several months' delays in payment of wages, work in temperatures as cold as minus-25 degrees celsius without sufficient protections and employers’ failure to provide contracts required for legal employment.

FIFA unveiled a monitoring system last year to oversee labour conditions at the Russia 2018 World Cup stadiums and insists it has helped to improve standards.