MOSCOW, October 24. /TASS/. The Russian national football team is set to play a friendly football match against Brunei in the country’s southern city of Krasnodar on November 15, the Russian Football Union’s (RFU) press office said in a statement on Thursday.

The RFU’s press office also added that the friendly match between Russia and Brunei next month will be officially registered by the world’s governing body of football, FIFA.

The Syrian Football Association (SFA) announced earlier in the day that it signed a contract for a friendly football match between the Russian and Syrian national football sides that would be played in Russia’s Volgograd on November 19.

The Russian national football team is currently 34th in the world’s governing body of football (FIFA) World Ranking and Brunei occupies the 184th position of the ratings list. Both national teams never played against each other in the past.

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).