The aggressor country of russia national football team will not be allowed to participate in the 2026 World Cup qualifying draw.
This is reported by russian media with reference to their own sources.
Officially, this information has not been announced yet.
The draw will take place on December 13 in Zurich (Switzerland). The qualifying tournament in Europe will be held from March 2025 to March 2026.
"The russian national team will not be allowed to participate in the World Cup qualifying draw. The team will not be able to participate in the qualifying round due to security issues, UEFA and FIFA have not changed their minds on this since the russian Football Union was suspended. The team will not be able to qualify for the World Cup," said an unnamed source for the russian sports portal Match.
As is known, the 2026 World Cup will be held in the USA, Canada and Mexico. 16 teams from Europe will compete in the tournament.
As is known, FIFA and UEFA suspended russian national teams and clubs from participating in tournaments under their auspices for an indefinite period in 2022 due to the aggression of the occupying country against Ukraine. The russian national team was unable to participate in the playoffs for the right to play in the 2022 World Cup, missed the 2024 European Championship and two rounds of the Nations League.
As previously reported, the russian Football Union (RFU) is negotiating with UEFA regarding the return of russian teams to European club tournaments as well as in the national team format. This was stated by the representative of the RFU, Maksim Mitrofanov.
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