The meeting of the board of directors of the Russian Football Union (RFU), after which it became known rejection of transfer This decision to the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) was notable not only for this fateful decision.
Appearing before the journalists at the end of the meeting, the president of the union, Alexander Dyukov, announced that the Russian national team will play with the Serbian national team in March 2024.
“A game with the Serbs is planned in March, it will be played in the Russian Federation. “We signed the relevant agreement,” he said. brought Dyukov’s words “Match TV”.
Meeting point
The RFU president stated that there is an assumption about the location of the meeting, but this will largely depend on the quality of the field and the weather conditions in the spring of the year. Also, the match must be played in a large area.
Last week Serbian agency Tanjug The match will be played on 21 or 22 March in St. It was reported that it will be played at the Zenit Arena in St. Petersburg, but this information has not been confirmed.
“We received permission from UEFA and agreed with the RFU to hold a friendly match between our teams. The match will be played at Moscow’s Dynamo Stadium on March 21,” he said. Sports24 General Secretary of the Football Association of Serbia Jovan Surbatovich.
Game odds
Regarding the guarantees of the match, Dyukov emphasized that the current situation is not similar to the agreement with Bosnia and Herzegovina, and that the match played with the Russian national team in October 2022 was canceled due to the public reaction and the protests of Bosnian football players. It is cancelled. In this case, a contract has already been signed between the RFU and the Serbian side and international federations are unlikely to ban the meeting.
General Secretary of the Russian Football Union Maxim Mitrofanov saidAnother friendly match could be played with the Belarusian team:
“We are negotiating with the Belarusians. There is a high probability that this team will compete with the Russian national team in 2024. But definitely not in March.”
When will the ban be lifted?
The RFU President also spoke about when fans should expect the suspension from international competitions to which Russian national teams and clubs are subject to be lifted in March 2022, immediately after the start of a special military operation in Ukraine.
“Port wine does not flow under a man who lies. We must continue working. Maybe we don’t have the authority. However, it is not just to lift the sanctions imposed on football. For example, we cannot lift the sanctions imposed on Gazprom. What is your offer? We must continue playing, we must continue negotiations,” Dyukov emphasized. – No, this is not drama, this is bad. It is disastrous that young football players do not have the opportunity to train and play. We work to ensure that our teams have the chance to play in international matches. “Our national team is playing, our youth team is playing in Brazil, and our women are playing in Paraguay.”
Dyukov stated that the match will be played neutrally, without the national flag and anthem, and said that these symbols are very important, but he preferred to wait for the decision of the international federations.
“The RFU is not just me, it’s the executive committee and its members too. The views of all members of the RFU on this issue are important. “It is important for me that the national team takes part with the flag and anthem, but we do not have voluntarism, the RFU is not my personal organization, I am not ready to make such a decision for everyone,” he said.
Matches of this year
Last year the Russian national team led by Valery Karpin played eight matches (they were all friends).
A draw with Iran (1:1) and a win against Iraq (2:0) were recorded in March. After this there was a long break until September, and up to six meetings were held in the autumn.
Karpin’s junior team first played two matches against the Egyptian Olympic team (U-23), drawing (1:1) and losing (1:2), then peacefully defeating Qatar’s senior team (1:1). ). one). In October, the Cameroon national team lost at home (1:0), and the match with Kenya at the stadium of one of the Turkish hotels ended in a draw (2:2).
In November in Volgograd, Karpin’s players received the Cuban national team, who flew there without boots with iron spikes and bought them in a regular store in Russia. It all ended in a convincing defeat – 8:0.