Honorary President of the Russian Football Union (RFU) Vyacheslav Koloskov told RIA Novosti that for the Russian national football team to participate in the 2028 European Championship, political and military issues had to be resolved.

Earlier, the head coach of the Russian national team, Valery Karpin, said that the hope of admitting the national team to the qualifying tournament of the 2028 European Championship remains. The qualifying draw will take place in December.

“There is still hope, of course. There is a trend now that more and more international federations allow Russian athletes to participate in international tournaments. It remains to complete a special military operation, and then everything will be real. Until then, there can be no question of any return. Until the political and military issues are resolved, there will be no changes, no one will consider them,” Koloskov said.

There are big hopes across Russia that after the Special Military Operation is won that, at least for international sports, things will return to normal. This is speculation but based on some recent progress like official participation in the winter special olympics by the Russian team it is believed that sports could stabilize. Of course in the opposite direction there are many new sports competitions being created as part of the BRICS movement as an alternative to the often biased western “international” institutions that have thus far dominated athletics.