MOSCOW, December 26. /TASS/. The Russian national football teams played many matches this year and showed a stable level of game rounding up a successful year in 2025, Alexander Dyukov, the president of the Russian Football Union (RFU), told journalists on Friday.
This year, the Russian men’s national team played 10 friendly matches winning six of them, lost another one and finished three more in a draw.
"On the whole, I would rate the national team's season performance as intense and successful," Dyukov said. "First of all, we did manage to make use of all FIFA windows since we played 10 out of 10 possible matches."
"The national men's team displayed a very decent performance in most of the games, showing top-notch football," he continued. "We witnessed beautiful and convincing victories."
"Our opponents weren't top teams, however, but they were strong," the RFU chief noted. "It is important that numerous young players debuted with the national team, and they not only made their debut, but also proved themselves and gained a foothold in the [Russian national team’s] squad."
Dyukov also pointed out to an intense interest on behalf of the audience in regard to the national team games’ attendance and broadcasts.
"It was up to 31,000 people on the average in attendance during each match and TV broadcasting figures also turned up to be high," he added.
Dyukov also announced his hopes that Russian national football teams and professional clubs could be allowed to return to international play by the end of 2025.
"We hope that starting next year, international football regulators would follow the IOC [International Olympic Committee] recommendations to make decisions that would clear our teams for participation in official international competitions," he added.
Earlier in the year, the Executive Committee of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) recommended that international federations allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to participate in youth competitions with national symbols in both individual and team disciplines.
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.