MOSCOW, November 29. /TASS/. President of the Russian Football Union (RFU) Alexander Dyukov announced to journalists on Friday that he intends to run for re-election.

The RFU Conference to elect a new president is scheduled to be held on February 2 of next year.

"I have decided to participate in the RFU presidential election," Dyukov said. "According to regulations <…>, at least five members of the RFU must nominate me as a candidate."

"I’ve decided to run for the re-election, so now I need to wait to be nominated by the federations and other football organizations that are members of the RFU," he added.

Dyukov, 56, the chief executive of Russian oil major Gazprom Neft and ex-chairman of the Board of Directors of Zenit St. Petersburg football club, was elected president of the Russian Football Union in February 2019.

In the period between 2008 and 2017, Dyukov also served as the president of Zenit St. Petersburg FC. During this period, the football club won three national football championships (2010, 2012, 2015), took two Russia Cups (2010, 2016) and also won the 2008 UEFA Cup and the 2008 UEFA Super Cup.

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 Vietnam (3-0), Brunei (11-0) and Syria (4-0).