MOSCOW, October 25. /TASS/. The Russian Football Union (RFU) discussed the possibility of holding matches of the national football squad with European teams, President of the Russian Football Union (RFU) Alexander Dyukov said on Friday.
"I held meetings with heads of European [football] associations, we discussed the possibility of organizing matches," Dyukov said.
"However, everything depends on the calendar. If there is an opportunity, we will play these games," the RFU chief added.
The Russian Football Union’s (RFU) press office announced to TASS on Thursday that the country’s national football team will play two friendly matches next month and they will be officially registered by the world’s governing body of football, FIFA.
The Syrian Football Association’s (SFA) announced on Thursday that it inked with the RFU an agreement to hold a friendly football match in Russia’s Volgograd on November 19. Later that day, the RFU press office also announced that the Russian national football team was scheduled to play a friendly match against the team from Brunei and the game will be held in the country’s southern city of Krasnodar on November 15.
"Why did we decide to hold the match in Krasnodar [against the team from Brunei], as the logistics are complicated? Firstly, we see a big demand from the fans as they love football in this city - the Krasnodar Region and Krasnodar do a lot for the development of football," Dyukov said.
"Secondly, we are set to play in November and at this time [of the year] we and the opponents need excellent weather and on-field conditions," Dyukov stated speaking about Russia’s upcoming friendly match against Brunei.
The national football team of Brunei occupies the 184th position of the FIFA World Rankings list and it never played against the Russian team.
Russia’s November 19 friendly match against the Syrian team is scheduled to be played at the 45,000-seat Volgograd-Arena that was built for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia and hosted four group stage matches of the world football championship.
The Russian national football team is currently 34th in the world’s governing body of football (FIFA) World Ranking and Syria occupies the 93rd position of the ratings list. In their previous encounter, the USSR (the Soviet Union) defeated Syria 2-0 on their home turf in Damascus in 1988.
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).