NOVOGORSK /Moscow Region/, October 9. /TASS/. The Russian national football team plans to play two friendly matches next month with one of the possible opponents representing Syria, Valery Karpin, the head coach of the Russian national side, told journalists on Wednesday.

"We have two opponents for the month of November," he said. "There is still no information whether they would be able to come. One of our possible opponents is the Syrian national team."

The Russian Football Union’s (RFU) press office said in a statement later in the day that the national squad would not be playing friendly international fixtures in October.

The Syrian Football Association (SFA) confirmed to TASS earlier that the country’s national team had been training to play a friendly match against the Russian national side. Muwaffaq Fathallah, the head coach of the Syrian national side, told TASS earlier that the contract for the friendly match against Russia had not been inked as of yet.

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) Belarus 4-0 and Vietnam (3-0).