MOSCOW, December 20. /TASS/. There is still a chance that Russia could play in the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers, Alexander Dyukov, the president of the Russian Football Union (RFU), told journalists on Friday.

"For us to participate in the World Cup qualifiers, FIFA and UEFA would need to rescind the decisions made at the end of February 2022," Dyukov said. "Those decisions have not been reversed, meaning we can’t participate in the Final Draw. However, as long as the matches haven’t started, there is still a chance."

"Change is in the air and I am expecting the tide to turn next year regarding the return of all our national teams and football clubs to the international arena," Dyukov added as he vowed to run for another presidential term of the Russian Football Union (RFU).

"We’ve seen individual athletes participate in international competition recently, and this is a positive sign that similar bans for Russian football might soon be lifted," Dyukov said.

Last month, 27 Russian swimmers were granted the right to participate as neutrals in the 2024 World Aquatics Championship (25m), which took place in Budapest, Hungary, on December 10-15. In addition, the International Skating Union also greenlighted the participation of athletes from Russia and Belarus in the qualifying competitions for the 2026 Winter Olympic Games in Italy.

The 2026 FIFA World Cup will be co-hosted by Canada, Mexico and the United States. The matches will be played in 16 various cities of the co-hosting countries. This will be the first FIFA World Cup featuring 48 teams compared to the previous 32-team format.

Russia hosted its first and only FIFA World Cup in 2018. The championship took place at 12 stadiums in 11 cities across Russia, namely in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Sochi, Kazan, Saransk, Kaliningrad, Volgograd, Rostov-on-Don, Nizhny Novgorod, Yekaterinburg and Samara.

 

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).