MOSCOW, August 28. /TASS/. A possible friendly football match between the national teams of Hungary and Russia may be organized no earlier than the next year, RFU (the Russian Football Union) Secretary General Maxim Mitrofanov told TASS on Wednesday.

"The Hungarian national team is scheduled to play official matches. It is impossible to play against this national team before 2025 due to objective limitations," Mitrofanov stated.

The RFU stated earlier in the month that it wanted the Russian national football squad to play ten friendlies a year against countries ranked in the top 80 of the FIFA Rankings. On September 5, Russia is set to play a friendly against Vietnam, which is currently 115th in FIFA Rankings and two days later, against Thailand (101st in FIFA Rankings).

In early June, RFU President Alexander Dyukov stated that the Russian Football Union (RFU) is in talks with the Hungarian Football Federation (HFF) on organizing a friendly football match between the men’s national squads next year.

The RFU’s press office announced earlier in the month that the Russian national football team was set to play friendly matches in early September against Vietnam (September 5) and Thailand (September 7).

Both matches will be hosted by the over 40,200-seat capacity My Dinh National Stadium in Hanoi and will kick off at 4:00 p.m. Moscow time (1:00 p.m. GMT).

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, namely against Kyrgyzstan (2-1), Tajikistan (0-0), Uzbekistan (0-0), Iran (1-1), Iraq (2-0), Cameroon (1-0), Kenya (2-2), Cuba (8-0), Serbia (4-0) and Belarus 4-0.