The Football Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (NSBIH) announced that the national team will play a friendly against Russia in November in St. Petersburg, but the decision was criticized by some players and the mayor of Sarajevo, writes AFP.
The NSBIH press release specifies that this meeting will take place on November 19, ahead of the opening of the FIFA World Cup in Qatar (November 20 – December 18), in which the Russian national team will not participate, having been banned from all international competitions by FIFA and UEFA after the invasion of Ukraine on February 24.
“This is not a very good decision. When our national team gets off to a good start, something always goes wrong. I don’t even have words, the Federation knows very well my position on this issue,” said one of the stars of the Bosnian national team. Miralem Pyanich (107 tackles), spent at Turin “Juventus” and “Barcelona”, and now plays in the championship of the United Arab Emirates in the team coached by Romanian Cosmin Olera, “Sharjah”.
Sarajevo Mayor Benjamina Karic also criticized the Federation’s statement and threatened to end the Bosnian capital’s cooperation with NSBIH if the match takes place.
“We strongly condemn the federation’s decision to hold a friendly match against Russia. Sarajevo was a city that was besieged by the aggressor for a long time.” – said Karichreferring to the Serbian siege of his city during the war in Bosnia (1992-1995), in the midst of the breakup of Yugoslavia, writes Agerpres.
Romania will face Bosnia on September 26 at the Rapid Julesti Stadium in the Nations League.
Excluded from the competition, it is difficult for Russia to find opponents for friendly matches
The Russian national team will return to action in a friendly match in Kyrgyzstan on September 24, seven months after being suspended by FIFA and UEFA over the invasion of Ukraine.
The match between Kyrgyzstan and Russia will take place in Bishkek, the capital of this Central Asian country. In November, Russia will meet Iran, the date of this game is not yet known.
In recent months, the Russian Football Federation has been looking for teams that Sborna could play with after being eliminated from the 2022 World Cup and Nations League playoffs. The Russian national team has not played a single official match since losing to Croatia (1:0) on November 14 last year in the preliminary matches of the 2022 World Cup.
Russian coach Valery Karpin included 35 players in the preliminary squad for the friendly match against Kyrgyzstan.
Russian club teams are also excluded from international competitions.
Source: Hot News RO
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