According to the Mehr reporter, the Russian national football team was supposed to participate in the KAFA tournament in June this year with the participation of the national football teams of Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
After the Russian military attack on Ukraine, the World Football Federation and the European Football Union have banned the Russian team from participating in international competitions, and it is not yet clear when the national team of this country can return to normal conditions.
The Russian Federation has been following the plan to transfer to the Asian Football Confederation for the past year, but it has not yet reached a definite and final result. During this period of their suspension, the Russians played against Asian teams including Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Iraq, and they planned to participate in the CAFFA tournament as well.
However, less than two months before the start of CAF, the Russian Federation suddenly announced that it will not participate in these competitions to affect the overall program of these competitions, including Iran’s preparation program.
The Russian Football Federation and the head coach of the country’s national team mentioned the hot weather at that time as one of the reasons for this decision, but the announcement of this issue was followed by ridicule and sarcasm from some Russian football experts.
Valery Ovchinikov, one of the Russian coaches, emphasized that Russia is afraid of losing against Asian teams, and that is why it does not participate in CAF.
Valerie said: “The weather is a good excuse not to participate in Kaffa.” We don’t play in the summer. We are used to the cold!
He continued sarcastically: The Russian Football Federation probably thinks that our football is played by the Chukchi people (an indigenous people of Russia who are close to Siberia). We mustn’t go to the racetrack in the summer or we’ll melt!
This Russian coach emphasized: “It seems that the Russian Federation is more afraid of losing against our Asian brothers.”