Russia launches search for 2018 World Cup mascot

MOSCOW (AP) Russia has launched a competition to design the mascot for its 2018 World Cup.

For the next 31 days, would-be designers will be able to submit ideas and names for the mascot through a new Russian-language section of the FIFA website.

There will be ''no limits on a flight of fancy,'' and the campaign is targeted specifically at Russian children, World Cup organizing committee CEO Alexei Sorokin said.

There will be a public vote on the entries, and the mascot will be revealed in 2016.

Former Russia midfielder Sergei Semak, who launched the site with three of his children, said the project was a sign that, at Russia's World Cup, ''everything good that we do is for children.''