Russia said it had "always" been confident that its bid for the 2018 World Cup had been "transparent" after FIFA ruled Thursday the bidding process for the tournament and the 2022 edition did not need to be re-run.

The head of Russia's organising committee, Alexei Sorokin, said: "We are sure that our bid was transparent. We did not commit any violations.

"We were always sure that they would not find anything unlawful," Sorokin said, according to R-SPort news agency.

"I was sure that this is what would happen -- our bidding campaign was absolutely honest," sports minister Vitaly Mutko, who is a member of FIFA's powerful Executive Committee, told TASS news agency.

"We didn't play any games behind the scenes. I'm glad that this matter has finally been put to rest," he said.

The FIFA report said Russia had failed to hand over copies of some e-mails about the bid because its computer equipment had been scrapped.

Sorokin said Russia had cooperated fully with the investigation but that some information had been "forgotten."

"We handed over to the investigation everything that we could. You have to understand that four years had passed and some information is simply forgotten."

FIFA also cleared Qatar of corruption in the bidding process for the 2022 World Cup, which has faced widespread allegations of wrongdoing.