MOSCOW, December 25. /TASS/. The Russian national football team is working to schedule two away friendly matches next June against countries that qualified for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, Russian Football Union (RFU) Secretary General Maxim Mitrofanov said in an interview with TASS on Thursday.

"I cannot specify as of yet the opponents and where exactly they [the matches] will be played," Mitrofanov stated.

"We are planning for the Russian national team to play two matches on home turf in March and two away matches outside Russia against teams that qualified and are preparing for the tournament [2026 World Cup]. We are looking at a number of teams here," he added.

The 2026 FIFA World Cup will be co-hosted by Canada, Mexico and the United States. The matches will be staged in 16 cities across the three countries. This will be the first FIFA World Cup featuring 48 teams instead of 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.