The Executive Committee of the Russian Football Union (RFU) has met this Friday to discuss his departure from UEFA and a possible transfer to Asia (AFC). After said Committee, The president of the federation, Alexander Dyukov made an assessment of it and confirmed that Asia has opened the doors to welcome RussiaAlthough for now they will sit down to negotiate with UEFA, FIFA and the IOC. In mind, Russia’s participation in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers.
“We have created a working group that we will send to UEFA to create a roadmapwhich we hope will be completed by April 1, to solve the problem of the return of club and national team teams to official international tournaments as soon as possible. There is a preliminary agreement with FIFA on the creation of this working group. Later we will decide who will invite the IOC representatives: UEFA or RFU”, explained the director of the Russian body.
The opinion of the Russian coach, Valery Karpin, has helped favor negotiations with FIFA and UEFA, as confirmed by Dyukov: “His (Karpin’s) opinion is that it is better to play than not to play. Our solution aims to find an opportunity to play as soon as possible. The creation of a working group will speed up this process. If we understand that this does not work, we will go the other way. No one knows which option is better. Only time will show.”
Moving to Asia is still in effect
Although the option of Russia moving to another confederation (Asia) is still on the table. “Most of the clubs support the possibility of moving to Asia. Nothing has changed. We are looking for a solution for the return of our team and our clubs to official competitions. Will study the option to return to UEFA competitions as soon as possible. If we understand that it is impossible, the work option would be to change the confederation and go to the AFC, but the issue of the transition to Asia is not being discussed”.
Dyukov once again made it clear what the position of Russian football and Aleksandr Ceferin, president of UEFA, is. “For the RFU, football and politics are not connected. Not a week ago, and six months ago, UEFA did not want to lose Russia. Nothing has changed in relations with UEFA. UEFA and the football people of Europe want to see us. If they didn’t want to, they wouldn’t cooperate with us at all. And if you want Ceferin? If we have agreed to create a working group… Yes, you do! He wants to find a solution. The main task is to start participating in official competitions. Of course, it is important to play in the 2026 World Cup. Therefore, a solution must be found. I set myself that task, but I’m not ready to wait long. We can go to Asia, but nobody guarantees that we will participate in the World Cup qualifiers. FIFA only. And there are great doubts that it will work next year. This is a technical point, it is possible that we do not have time to make the transition”, the president of the federation recounted for Russian journalists.