MOSCOW, September 8. /TASS/. The Russian national football team will play friendly matches next month against Namibia and Nigeria, the press office of the Russian Football Union (RFU) reported on Tuesday.

The match against Namibia will be played on October 3 in the Russian Urals city of Yekaterinburg while Russia will play against Nigeria on October 6 in Nizhny Novgorod.

Before that, on September 29, the Russian national football squad will meet for a friendly match with Iran in Kazan, the capital of the Russian republic of Tatarstan.

Russia’s matches against Iran, Namibia and Nigeria will be officially registered by the world’s governing body of football, FIFA, RFU’s press office added.

"Matches against Iran, Namibia and Nigeria will be included in the FIFA Ranking," according to the RFU’s statement.

Namibia is currently 121st in the FIFA World Rankings, while Russia stands at 35th. The two teams have never played each other. The match in Yekaterinburg will be the first for the Russian national team at the over 35,000-seat capacity Central Stadium, which was one of the 12 venues in 11 cities for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia.

Nigeria is currently 26th in the FIFA World Rankings. Russia has played Nigeria once before. In June 2025, the teams met in a friendly match at Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, finishing in a 1-1 draw.

Iran is 22nd in the FIFA World Rankings. Russia and Iran have played against each other four times prior - all exhibition matches. In their most recent encounter in Russia’s Volgograd in October 2025 the hosts defeated the Iranian team 2-1. The other three matches ended in two draws and one Iranian win.

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.