The draw for the 2024 European Football Championship in Germany will take place without Russia. This was confirmed by UEFA. It is unclear whether Russia will also be absent from the finals in two years.
Russian football still has friends. Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, is almost 3,000 kilometers from Moscow and is set to be the scene of the first friendly of the internationally isolated 2018 World Cup hosts since the attack on Ukraine last February.
“It is important to show that we are alive”, said national coach Valery Karpin, whose national team is preparing for the trip to the former Soviet republic at the training center in Novogorsk. Not much gets out.
Test matches against Kyrgyzstan, Iran – and Bosnia-Herzegovina?
Photos of training under floodlights and reports of injured professionals (Igor Diveyev cannot play) depict a normality that cannot be normal from a Western perspective. The Russian national team is excluded from the competitions of the European Football Union UEFA and the world association FIFA. The domestic Premjer-Liga is played without any restrictions anyway.
Kyrgyzstan and World Cup participants Iran in November have been confirmed as friendly opponents, and there are currently major upheavals over a game against Bosnia-Herzegovina scheduled for just before the World Cup in Qatar. The star players of the guests invited to St. Petersburg, including former Bundesliga professional Edin Dzeko, have announced their refusal, and domestic political discussions are being held in Bosnia. Ukrainian football is watching developments with great concern.
Russia complains about test match discussions
“Urgently” the big names of the Ukrainian association around Andriy Shevchenko and Oleh Blokhin called on the Bosnian coaching staff to boycott. “We are fighting for the future of the entire democratic, civilized world, which includes Bosnia and Herzegovina”, says an open letter. The game of the Ukrainians in the World Cup qualifier in mid-November 2021 in Zenica was the last before the Russian invasion.
In Russia, there is great outrage that there is any discussion at all. “In the current conditions it’s already a success to play against Kyrgyzstan”, said Karpin. Duma deputy Dmitry Pirog from the Kremlin party United Russia again complained in an interview with the newspaper “Sport-Express”. “anti-Russian feelings”. Should the association invite opponents from Latin America or Africa? “The level of teams like Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Nigeria or Cameroon is in no way inferior to Bosnia. I don’t see any tragedy if the game with Bosnia is canceled.”
EM participation of Russia 2024 more than uncertain
Upon request, UEFA said that friendlies are not part of UEFA’s competitions and are therefore not the association’s responsibility. The planned Bosnia game is standing “not contrary to the decision of the UEFA Executive Committee to ban Russian teams from UEFA competitions”. The RFS announced before UEFA itself that it would not take part in the qualifying draw for the 2024 finals on October 9 in Frankfurt/Main due to the sanctions. Four years ago, the Russians organized the World Cup as a big show for President Vladimir Putin.
The UEFA decision-making body met on the Croatian island of Hvar. The association left it open whether Russia would be excluded from the final round in two years’ time. At first, the notice of the meeting was only about participation “in the qualifying competition draw”which begins in March 2023.