MOSCOW, August 8. /TASS/. The Russian national football team will play an exhibition against Iran on October 10 in the south Russian city of Volgograd, the Russian Football Union’s (RFU) press office reported on Friday.

The match will be played at the Volgograd-Arena. The opening of ticket sales, as well as the match’s kick-off time, will be announced later.

The 45,000-seat Volgograd-Arena was built for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia and hosted four group stage matches of the world football championship.

Volgograd, formerly known as Stalingrad, has a population of over one million people, situated along the Volga River. The city and the surrounding areas were the scene of the fiercest battles of World War II, including the Battle of Stalingrad, which was widely considered to be the turning point in the war.

The Iranian national football team is currently 20th in the FIFA Rankings. Russia is 35th.

The Russian and Iranian teams previously played against each other on three occasions: in 2011, when Iran defeated Russia 1-0, and in 2017 and 2023, which both ended in a 1-1 draw.

The USSR also played three matches against Iran, winning all of them: in the quarterfinals of the 1976 Summer Olympics in Canada (2-1), in a 1976 friendly match (1-0) and in the 1985 Nehru Cup (2-0).

The Iranian national football team has already qualified for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which will be co-hosted by Canada, Mexico and the United States. The matches will be played in 16 cities across the North American continent. 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.