Culture Society, Identity and Belonging
What links the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Iran, Iraq, Qatar, Kenya, Cameroon, and Cuba? They are the only senior men’s football teams to have played against Russia since the invasion of Ukraine. Now you can add Serbia and Paraguay to the list: they will become the first European and South American countries to play a friendly against Russia since the country was removed from international competitive football.
The matches, to be played in March, are the latest move to rehabilitate Russia’s football reputation, which reached its peak when it hosted the 2018 World Cup.
Uefa has given permission for the game against Serbia to go ahead, despite Russian national teams and domestic clubs being banned from Uefa competitions. The suspension does not apply to friendlies.
Russia’s women’s team has played Paraguay and Serbia twice since November 2022, and Uefa U-turned on its decision to readmit the Russian Under-17 team to competitive football in October 2023 after a number of countries said they would not compete if a Russian team was eligible to play.
These games are more than just football matches. Russia’s friendly against Kenya last October came seven months after Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov visited Nairobi and agreed a trade pact, with Kenya being a significant importer of Russian fertilisers and grain. The Cameroon game came three months after its president, Paul Biya, attended the second Russia-Africa summit in St Petersburg.
Gazprom, the Russian state energy firm, was dropped as a sponsor by Uefa in the aftermath of the Ukraine invasion, ending a decade-long association with the European football authority.
But Gazprom still has ties with Serbian football, and its logo has adorned the shirts of Serbia’s most successful club, Red Star Belgrade, since 2011.
Spare a penny for Gianni Infantino’s thoughts. Fifa’s president received a Russian Order of Friendship medal from Vladimir Putin in 2019 following Russia’s hosting of the World Cup in 2018, and said at the time it was “only the beginning of our fruitful cooperation and interaction”.
There is another way. Bosnia and Herzegovina were due to play a friendly against Russia last November only for star players Edin Dzeko and Miralem Pjanic to lead a protest that led to the game being scrapped.