"We decided not to break the schedule for the clubs": the RFU will not hold the training camp of the national team in June

The Russian national football team will not hold friendly matches, and with them a training camp in June. This was officially announced on Tuesday, May 30, by the RFU.

As noted in the message on the organization's website, the summer schedule of potential rivals does not allow for a test game on convenient dates, so it was decided not to break the program of preparing clubs for the season. Thus, the next time the coaching staff under the leadership of Valery Karpin will meet with the players in September.

Of course, all plans were broken by the refusal of the Cameroon national team to come to Moscow. The RFU initially negotiated with Samuel Eto'o, who currently heads the football federation and at the same time is well acquainted with Russia from his performances for Anji. It was planned that the meeting will take place on June 15 in Luzhniki. However, politics again intervened in sports affairs: according to Sport-Express, the government forbade Africans to go to the capital.

"We had preliminary agreements for a friendly match with the Cameroon national team, but they refused to play at the last moment. Negotiations on international matches are fraught with objective difficulties related to the foreign policy situation, "explained RFU Secretary General Maxim Mitrofanov.

According to him, the Russian national team had a backup option: there was an opportunity to hold a friendly match with another team on June 20, but the date turned out to be inconvenient for RPL clubs.

"The game would force a number of teams to adjust their preparation programs for the season. After discussing the situation with the coaching staff of the national team and clubs, we decided to let them calmly prepare for the season and not break their schedules, "the RFU press service quoted Mitrofanov as saying.

At the same time, according to Valery Karpin, in the current situation, when the Russian national team does not have the opportunity to hold official matches, and the candidates have completed the season, this decision looks reasonable.

"Players will be able to fully prepare for the new championship, and the clubs, in turn, will not change their plans in the offseason," the specialist said in an interview with TASS.

I agree with Karpin and the honorary president of the RFU Vyacheslav Koloskov. According to him, training activities without control meetings do not make any sense.

"What kind of training camps can there be during the vacation of football players? There is no game anyway. People have already taken tickets on vacation, prepared swimming trunks, and you take them to the training camp. Absolutely the right decision. Once canceled, it means that it will not be a minus for the team, "Koloskov told Match TV.

At the same time, now some experts consider the decision of the RFU to ignore the CAFA championship, to which the Russians were invited, to be wrong. The tournament is scheduled to be held from 9 to 21 June. The teams of Iran, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Afghanistan should perform at it. The refusal to participate was then explained by the heavy burden on the players.

In addition, the coaching staff was embarrassed by the weather conditions in Bishkek and Tashkent in the summer, as well as the fields on which the players would have to play tired after a long season. Taken together, all this could lead to unnecessary injuries to anyone. However, in the end, the Russian national team was left in June without a tournament and without a friendly match.

It remains to be hoped that in September the national team will catch up. We have already announced our desire to hold control meetings with Valery Karpin's wards in Indonesia and Ghana. Negotiations are underway with the Ivory Coast Football Federation, but we are talking about next year.

"We cooperate and communicate with the RFU, but the match between our team and the Russian team this year is impossible - all the games are scheduled. Let's see how things turn out in the future. We are open to dialogue," the head of the organization, Idriss Diallo, told Sport24.

The Iraqi national team, which the national team beat 2-0 in March, does not mind taking revenge. However, so far negotiations on a new sparring are not underway. As explained by the press secretary of the team Mohammed Imad, the team will participate in a friendly tournament in the fall along with Jordan, Iran and Qatar.

"The Iraqi Football Federation considered holding a friendly match between the national teams of Iraq and Russia on FIFA Day, September 7, but everything remained at the stage of interests," he said.