FIFA WORLD CUP - 2018 COUNTDOWN : Exit music, enter ‘musical’ spoons

Moscow: The musical instrument to master for this year’s soccer World Cup is the Russian spoon.

Eight years after South Africans blared away on their plastic vuvuzela horns when they hosted the contest, Russians are hoping fans at the tournament it hosts starting on Thursday will celebrate by clacking their 'lozhkas' - spoons that beat out an insistent, but quieter rhythm.

Folk musicians using the traditional instruments - two wooden spoons held back to back and struck by a third - have already become a feature at official receptions.

Designer Rustam Nugmanov got government backing to produce a line of colored and branded 'Spoons of Victory' that have been recognized as the tournament’s official instrument.

“When choosing a typically Russian instrument we had a choice of three: a treshchotka (clapper), a shaker and a lozhka,” he said.

They wanted instruments that could knock out a rhythm, without dominating the proceedings like the vuvuzelas and could avoid the shattering rattling produced by Brazil’s “caxirola” percussion instruments at the championships.