KRASNODAR, November 14. /TASS/. Over 26,000 tickets have already been sold for this week’s friendly football match between the national teams of Russia and Brunei in the Russian city of Krasnodar, the Russian Football Union’s (RFU) press office announced to TASS on Thursday.
The match is scheduled to kick off at the over 35,000-seat capacity Krasnodar Arena on November 15 at 7:00 p.m. Moscow time (4:00 p.m. GMT).
"As of today, we have already sold more than 26,000 tickets for the Russia-Brunei match," the RFU press office stated.
In late October, the RFU’s press office announced that the Russian national football team was scheduled to play a friendly match against the team from Brunei and that the game would be held in the country’s southern city of Krasnodar on November 15.
The national football team of Brunei is 184th in the FIFA World Rankings. Russia and Brunei have never played each other.
The national football team of Russia is also scheduled to play a friendly against the Syrian national team on November 19.
According to the RFU’s previous statements, friendly football matches between the national teams from Russia, Brunei and Syria this month would be officially registered by the world’s governing body of football, FIFA.
The Russian national football team is currently 34th in the FIFA World Rankings and Syria is 93rd. The last time the two countries played each other was in 1988, when the USSR (the Soviet Union) defeated Syria 2-0 in Damascus.
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).