Russia

The Russia national football team (Russian: Сборная России по футболу, romanized: Sbornaya Rossii po futbolu) represents the Russian Federation in men's international football. It is controlled by the Russian Football Union (Russian: Российский Футбольный Союз, Rossiyskiy Futbolnyj Soyuz), the governing body for football in Russia. Russia's home ground is the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow and their head coach is Valeri Karpin.

Although a member of FIFA since 1912 (as the Russian Empire before 1917 and as the Soviet Union in 1924–91), Russia first entered the FIFA World Cup in 1958. They have qualified for the tournament 11 times, with their best result being their fourth-place finish in 1966. Russia has been a member of UEFA since 1954. They won the first edition of the European Championship in 1960 and were runners-up in 1964, 1972 and 1988. Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Russia's best result was in 2008, when the team won bronze medals.

On 28 February 2022, due to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and in accordance with a recommendation by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), FIFA and UEFA suspended the participation of Russia. The Russian Football Union unsuccessfully appealed the FIFA and UEFA bans to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which upheld the bans.

History

After the breakup of the Soviet Union (which led to the break-up of the Soviet Union national football team), Russia played its first international match against Mexico on 16 August 1992, winning 2–0 with a team of former Soviet Union players, including some born in other former Soviet republics.

Beginning

Led by manager Pavel Sadyrin, Russia were in Group 5 for the qualification campaign for the 1994 FIFA World Cup held in the United States which consisted of Greece, Iceland, Hungary and Luxembourg. The suspension of FR Yugoslavia reduced the group to five teams. Russia qualified alongside Greece with six wins and two draws. Russia went to the US as an independent countr

This page also has a version in other languages :  Россия (russian)