MOSCOW, May 12. /TASS/. Russian national football team’s head coach, Valery Karpin, said on Tuesday he hoped that the team would be allowed to participate in the qualifying matches for the 2028 UEFA (the Union of European Football Federations) Euro Cup.
"We hope that we will be cleared for the 2028 Euro Cup, since the qualifiers begin already in 2027," Karpin said in an interview with YouTube channel managed by journalist Nadezhda Streletz.
The 2028 UEFA Euro Cup will be hosted by England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales between June 9 and July 9. The qualifiers for the quadrennial European football championship will be played between March 25, 2027 and March 28, 2028. The draw for the qualifying stage ahead of the major European football championship is scheduled for December 6, 2026.
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 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.