MOSCOW, May 21. /TASS/. The Malagasy Football Federation should soon come up with an answer about a possible friendly football match between the national teams of Madagascar and Russia, Director of Public Administration and International Relations of Madagascar Brassilive David Razanantsoa said in an interview with Russia’s sports daily Sport Express on Wednesday.
"I am waiting for a response from the Malagasy Football Federation regarding a possible match with the Russian team," he said. "Unfortunately, it is impossible to play this match on our soil since our stadium is currently under the reconstruction."
"It would be great to play a friendly match in Moscow," Razanantsoa added.
The Russian national team will play a friendly match against Nigeria on June 6 at the 81,000-seat capacity Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow. And on June 10, Russia is scheduled to play an away friendly match against the national squad of Belarus.
Russia has not lost a single friendly since sanctions were introduced against it by world football bodies. What’s more, it hasn’t even given up a goal in its last eight friendlies. These include wins over Cuba (8-0), Serbia (4-0), Belarus (4-0), Vietnam (3-0), Brunei (11-0), Syria (4-0), Grenada (5-0) and Zambia (5-0).
Russia’s football ban
The world's governing football body, FIFA, announced on February 28, 2022 that the Russian national teams 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 teams' 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.