"Style and awkward"

The Russian national football team for the first time since 2022 did not find rivals for a friendly match. How the RFU solves this problem with the help of "friendly" countries

The Russian national football team for the first time since the beginning of a full -scale war in Ukraine could not find rivals for a friendly match. The Russian Football Union (RFU) was negotiating with the Pakistan team, but later accused the country's representatives of disrupting the agreements. They did not want to play an exhibition match with a national team of lovers from the Medialgia in the national team itself. New Europe tells how an unusual gathering of the national team took place, why it improved positions in the world ranking, despite the ban from FIFA, and who in the State Duma suggested connecting the African Corps to the opponent’s search.

“We need to relax. They, the poor, ran in, played enough "

About the difficulties of the Russian Football Union (RFU) with the search for rivals one of the first in early October wrote Sport-Express. According to the publication, the RFU was going to cancel the collection if an opponent was not found for a friendly match: one of the Asian teams refused the games (the name was not specified in the publication), and the head coach Valery Karpin and the RFU leadership did not want to play against any of the Russian clubs or the national team of the mediator ( Russian football tournament from bloggers, amateurs and former professionals. Approx.

“As far as I know, there will be no gathering. This is in my information. I believe that they made the right decision. If there are no games, why get together? Football players need to rest. They, the poor, were raised, they played up, so for them a respite is only good for them, ”the former captain of the national team Andrei Arshavin indirectly confirmed the decision of the RFU.

As a result, the Secretary General of the Football Soyuzamaxim Mitrofanov said that the fee would take place. Along the way, he accused of unprofessionalism of colleagues from Pakistan (apparently, this country was also meant in the material “Sport-Express”), with which an agreement on the game was allegedly reached.

“On September 17, PFF notified the RFU about the impossibility of playing a match in October. The reason indicated the absence of coordination from the government of Pakistan. The RFU continues to convince our colleagues to hold the match at the previously agreed date, but we are extremely disappointed with the inconsistent behavior of the Pakistani Football Federation (PFF). We were dumbfounded when everything was already booked and organized, ”he said.

"There is no point in playing with people from Pakistan"

On October 5, it became known that 28 football players were called to the collection, and Karpin and his assistant Viktor Onopko said that "they did not know what they would do in the national team." The epic with the game against Pakistan lasted the next few days. Metaratings and SEs reported on October 8 that negotiations are underway and the match could take place in three days. The Pakistani Football Federation was answered by Sport24, which if there is a meeting, then not from the national team of the country.

“PFF did not send any team to Russia. The game in this pause, as mentioned earlier, is impossible. The team that goes to Russia on Friday is not the national team of our country, ”said the PFF public relations manager Muhammad Yakhakhar.

A long confusion with the opponent caused indignation of the football community. The former head coach of the national team, and now the State Duma deputy Valery Gazzaev said that playing with such weak teams as Pakistan (197 place in the FIFA ranking from 211 countries) - "ashamed and awkward, you need to respect yourself." Ex-President of the RFU Vyacheslav Koloskov was also harsh : “Are we some kind of garbage, we collect everything that will be reduced to us? Even worse with the Medialiga is below the plinth. ”

The match did not take place in the end. Apparently, a team consisting of players of Pakistani clubs was supposed to come in the Russian Federation. Valery Karpin did not like the idea: “[I have the game] the same information as yours. It seems to be held, but this is not for sure. With Pakistan. With people from Pakistan <...> there is no point in playing with people from Pakistan. There are certain procedures that the national team and the federation performed. Profiles are sent to UEFA and FIFA. And if the team of the national team is not considered, then it makes no sense. ”

Vitaly Milonov, deputy of the State Duma, unexpectedly volunteered to help with an opponent for Khodnyak, who proposed connecting the African Corps to the issue ( the structure of the Russian Ministry of Defense, created on the basis of Wagner PMC).

“I am ready to bring football players from Lebanon, from Syria, I can still find a couple of countries. You can ask the “African corps”, they will bring from the child, from the Central African Republic, ”said Milonov.

How was the collection: open training, a trip to the cinema, occupation with children from the border

Due to the lack of an opponent, the national team concentrated on PR actuators. In the early days, the national team conducted an open training for journalists, and Valery Karpin’s video appeared in social networks in the gym.

On October 9, the team in full force went to the Moscow cinema for the pre -premiere show of the film “Fedya. People's football player ”about the legend of Spartak Fedor Cherenkov.

The next day, the players planned a master class at the Dynamo stadium in Moscow for children from border Belgorod and Kursk regions, as well as open training for all fans. Representatives of the Russian, the National Anti -Doping Organization of Russia, unexpectedly came to it. They took 10 players for doping control, which is why the event was a little postponed. The director of the Marketing Communications Department of the RFU Kirill Tereshin said that Rusad employees “have the right to come to training, as it was repeatedly,” but was surprised at their decision to visit the master class for children.

According to athlete, 3,000 tickets for the meeting were sold on the first day. In the training itself, the players handed sports schools certificates for new equipment to sports schools. The lesson with children lasted more than an hour: they took part in a bilateral match with collections and received autographs. “Such a format should be. For the guys, this is something unimaginable. For us together to play football, it will also be remembered, ”Karpin commented .

The last day of the collection was October 11, after that the players went to their clubs to prepare for the upcoming matches.

Since 2022, Russia has improved positions in the FIFA ranking and has already found rivals for November

The next pause in the football season for the games of prefabricated is provided in November. Apparently, on this segment the Karpin team will hold two games. On November 15, the national team will probably play with the Brunei team, and four days later with Syria. Both matches will be held in Russia, among the possible places of the match with Brunei are called Sochi, Nizhny Novgorod and St. Petersburg, with Syria- Volgograd . The readiness to meet in November was also announced in the Federations of Tanzania and Pakistan, but the calendar implies only two meetings.

Russia cannot participate in official matches because of the ban from FIFA and UEFA, introduced on February 28, 2022. Because of this, the team has not yet acted in the selection for the championships of Europe and the world, does not participate in the League of Nations.

Despite the isolation, during the previous pauses for the matches of the national teams, the team of Valery Karpin invariably held comradely meetings. Among the rivals were even strong teams of Cameroon and Serbia, regularly participating in large tournaments. In 15 games, the team lost only once and thanks to this it improved the position in the FIFA ranking compared to March 2022 by two points, occupying 34th place. A high rating is taken into account with the draws of qualifying tournaments, helping to get weaker teams in rivals.

The issue of lifting a ban from the national team has not yet been discussed, but in the State Duma and the Foreign Ministry are outraged that FIFA in September once again postponed the possible removal from Israel's games due to a military operation in Gaza, despite the complaint of Palestine and the report of independent lawyers.

Recently, UEFA still decided to admit the male and female youth teams of Russia until 17 years old for competitions under his auspices (after them the FIFA Council made a similar decision).

“UEFA understands that children should not be punished for actions, the responsibility for which lies only with adults. It is especially upset that due to the ongoing conflict, the whole generation is deprived of the opportunity to compete at the international level, ”the organization said in an official statement of the organization on September 26.

However, immediately after this, 10 countries abandoned meetings with the national team (55 federations are included in UEFA): Ukraine, Poland, England, Norway, Denmark, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Finland and Sweden. As a result, on October 10, UEFA canceled the decision to dilute the national teams of the Russian Federation. They stated that "there was no technical solution that allows Russian teams to play."