Russia is currently suspended from all international football indefinitely, but the country has appealed the decision to Cas, the sports arbitration tribunal, where they are awaiting a decision.
While waiting for that, Russia's national team captain Valery Karpin has taken out his national team squad for a training camp in Moscow.
- We started from the principle that the backbone among the players who would play in the playoffs if a place in the World Cup 2022 would be called to the training camp, says Karpin to the Russian Football Association's website.
Sorry to say no
Two weeks ago, the Ukrainians Vitaliy Mykolenkooch Andrij Jarmolenko attacked Russian team captain Artyom Dzhuba for failing to speak publicly about the war.
Now the Russian Football Federation announces that the team captain has nobbed a summons to the national team due to the ongoing war in Ukraine.
Federation captain Valery Karpin has spoken to Dzhuba - who was sorry to say no but had to because he has several relatives in Ukraine.
- Due to the difficult situation in Ukraine, where he has many relatives, he apologized and asked for family reasons not to be selected for this collection.
We agreed that we will keep in touch and follow his matches in Zenit, says Valerij Karpin.