MOSCOW, February 14. /TASS/. The Russian national football team will play a friendly football match against the national squad of Paraguay in the Russian capital of Moscow on March 25, the press office of the Russian Football Union (RFU) announced in a statement on Wednesday.

The match will be played at the over 25,700-seat capacity VTB-Arena and the kick-off time is set to be announced later.

The RFU’s press service also stated that the friendly match between Russia and Paraguay would be officially registered by the world’s governing body of football, FIFA.

"The [friendly] match with the national team of Paraguay will be officially registered by the FIFA World Ranking," the RFU’s press office noted.

On March 21, the Russian side is set to play a friendly football match against the national team of Serbia also at the VTB-Arena. The match against Serbia will be also registered by FIFA in its official rankings.

Russia’s football ban

The International Association Football Federation (FIFA) announced on February 28, 2022 that the Russian national team and all professional clubs representing the country were barred from taking part in FIFA tournaments.

In turn, the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) made a similar decision in regard to the Russian national football team’s participation in UEFA tournaments.

Both FIFA and UEFA cited Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine as grounds for their respective bans on Russian teams’ participation in competitions.

Since sanctions were introduced, the Russian national football squad has played a host of friendlies against other countries. In 2023, Russia played friendly matches against Iran (1-1), Iraq (2-0), Qatar (1-1), Cameron (1-0), Kenya (2-2), Cuba (8-0).