UEFA has issued an official circular before the draw for the qualifying tournament for the 2026 European World Cup in the United States, Mexico and Canada. From the document it appears that the Russian team will not be able to participate in the draw.
The circular, obtained by Sport24, states, among other things, that UEFA will publish the schedule of European qualifying matches with the dates and start times of the 192 group stage matches as soon as possible after they are held. complete the draw.
Of the 192 matches mentioned, 54 teams and not all 55 UEFA members will participate in the draw.
There will be 6 groups of 5 teams (each of these groups will have 20 matches) and 6 groups of 4 teams (each of these groups will have 12 matches). The corresponding UEFA circular was distributed on 11 November.
“The Russian team will not be able to participate in the qualifying round for security reasons, here UEFA and FIFA have not changed their minds since the suspension of the Russian Football Union,” – a source told Match TV.
Due to sanctions from international organizations, the Russian team can only play friendly matches and has missed several important international tournaments. Among them are the 2022 World Cup in Qatar and the 2024 Euro Cup in Germany.
This year, the team has so far played four friendly matches, winning them by an aggregate score of 22:0: against Serbia (4:0), Belarus (4:0), Vietnam (3:0) and Brunei (11:0). 0). 0).
Tomorrow, November 19, the Russians will play the final control match against Syria in Volgograd.
Head coach of the national team. Valery Karpin commented on the preliminary results for 2024:
“I value the year as positive, but we must take into account the level of the rival. It is useless to pay attention to the numbers of the last games. We need to understand who we are playing with. Now it is more important to observe the players, to see how they carry out our plans. We focus more on the quality of the game than on the result. But if there is quality, there will be results.”
In turn, the football manager Timur Gurtskaya named the teams with which the Russian national team will play friendly matches in 2025.
“Next year there will be normal games. A match has been signed with Nigeria, a top team. In the cycle with Nigeria there will be another African country, probably also one of the first. There are contracts signed with Ecuador and Venezuela for the fall. And Uruguay or Colombia may appear,” – Gurtskaya said on the air of the program “This is football, brother!”
