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Russia to play friendly football match against Bolivia in Moscow on October 14

The match will be played at the 33,000-seat capacity VTB-Arena

MOSCOW, August 8. /TASS/. The Russian national football team will play a friendly match against Bolivia on October 14 in the Russian capital of Moscow, the Russian Football Union’s (RFU) press office reported on Friday.

The match will be played at the 33,000-seat capacity VTB-Arena.

The RFU announced earlier in the day that the country’s national football squad, which is currently 35th in FIFA Rankings, would play an exhibition match against Iran on October 10 in the southern Russian city of Volgograd.

The Bolivian national football team is currently 78th in the FIFA Rankings, and is fighting to qualify 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.

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