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Impossible to predict Russia’s return to FIFA-authorized tournaments — Kremlin

Dmitry Peskov said that Russia "considers the current lack of such an opportunity to be extremely unfair"

MOSCOW, May 7. /TASS/. It is unclear when the Russian national football team will participate in the 2026 FIFA World Cup, Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday.

"No one can provide an answer to this question," Peskov said when asked about Russia's participation in the 2026 FIFA World Cup. "We are certainly in favor of our footballers’ return to all international competitions."

The Russian presidential spokesman noted that Russia "considers the current lack of such an opportunity to be extremely unfair."

"We hope that in the near future the situation will improve and be finally resolved," he added.

President of the world’s governing body of football, FIFA, Gianni Infantino told TASS earlier this week that Russia's return to FIFA-authorized tournaments could happen very soon, given the progress of talks between Moscow and Washington regarding the Ukrainian conflict settlement. Infantino’s statement comes shortly after his meeting with US President Donald Trump.

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’s football ban

The world’s governing football body, FIFA, announced on February 28, 2022, that the Russian national team and all professional clubs representing the country were barred from participating in FIFA tournaments.

In turn, the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) made a similar decision regarding 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.

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