MOSCOW, March 19. /TASS/. French football league’s club Monaco club prohibited Russian midfielder Alexander Golovin from joining his national team in Sochi this month for the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifying match against Slovenia, the club’s press service announced on Friday.

The Russian national football team opens its group stage qualifiers campaign for the berth in the global football championship in Qatar in 2022 with away match against Malta on March 24. On March 27, Russia hosts in Sochi the national team of Slovenia and will play away on March 30 against Slovakia.

Following the 2022 FIFA World Cup Preliminary Draw in Zurich on September 7, 2020 for Europe’s national teams, Russia was seeded in Group H with the national squads from Croatia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Cyprus and Malta.

Golovin signed a five-year contract with AS Monaco in the summer of 2018 for an undisclosed sum. His previous CSKA Moscow football club announced in a statement back then that the transfer deal for Golovin was a record-breaker for the Russian football club.

Born in the Siberian town of Kaltan, the 24-year-old Golovin played a total of 113 matches for CSKA Moscow FC, including 23 matches as part of the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Europa League and also won the Russian Premier League (RPL) championship in 2016. He debuted in the Russian top division in 2015 at the age of 18.

At the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, Golovin appeared in four matches for his national side scoring a goal and delivering two assists. In all, Golovin has registered 28 appearances playing for the Russian national squad throughout his career and scored three goals.

2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar

Qatar is set to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup between November 21 and December 18 at eight stadiums in seven cities across the country, namely in Doha, Lusail, Al Wakrah, Al Khor, Al Rayyan, Umm Salal and Madinat ash Shamal.

Qatar won the right to host matches of the 2022 FIFA World Cup on December 2, 2010.

In March 2015, FIFA officially announced that the 22nd edition of FIFA’s flagship event would be played in November and December 2022, with the final match set for December 18, 2022 - Qatar National Day - and with the objective, in principle, of holding the tournament in 28 days.