Tomorrow Russia discusses withdrawal from UEFA and application to join AFC

[Rooyintan]

It's interesting how much power they still have over Kazakhstan. There were more Russians in that country than Kazakhs before the 1980s. Many Russians began to leave during the late 1970s. By the 1980s, the Kazakhs began to outnumber the Russians there, although not yet the majority due to the other ethnicities. The Kazakhs had already become the majority in that country by the time they joined UEFA in 2002. Although the Kazakhs made up 70.4% and the Russians made up 15.5% of the Kazakhstanis last year, Russian is still one of the official languages of Kazakhstan.

It's different with Uzbekistan. The Russians never outnumbered the Uzbeks in Uzbekistan. According to an Uzbek I know, Russian ceased to be taught in a lot of the schools there. (Wikipedia doesn't mention this for some reason). She felt like a foreigner when with the younger Uzbeks because she only learned Russian in school and the younger Uzbeks didn't. She learned English and Korean later on. She's actually more fluent in Korean than English now because she has been staying in Korea for a long time.

Yes, there are Russians within Kazakhstan Football Federation who are influential and make decisions. In Bosnia-Herzegovina Football Federation there are ethnic Serbs who are influential and make decisions, that's why they arranged friendly match with Russia for November but Muslim Bosnian Footballers in support of Ukraine protested and asked for the friendly match to be cancelled.

[Hosseini]

Playing Russia once or twice a year (if we even get drawn with them) isn't going to make our football much better. In fact, it's just going to limit our chances of having any more success by adding a heavyweight team to the mix, when we're already struggling to keep up with the likes of Japan and Korea at the moment - and we haven't even faced Suadi or Australia in forever.

The way our football gets better is with youth development and hiring a coach who is committed to our football over the long term and isn't having to focus solely on getting results. We're in a generational shift moment and this patience is going to be key.

[Arman2]

I think I remember hearing that they were upset with the officiating. And I heard that they joined UEFA because UEFA had more spots available in the World Cup. (I don't know if this is really the reason). Still, it was a mistake for Kazakhstan to assume that would increase their chances. It made sense when Australia joined the AFC because the OFC's spot in the World Cup is extremely low.

I guess you are right. Wasn't it after the WC play off against Bahrain, that they decided to leave? That was the biggest mistake they could ever make.

[oracle]

No to their nt
yes to club teams

[Nokhodi]

I guess you are right. Wasn't it after the WC play off against Bahrain, that they decided to leave? That was the biggest mistake they could ever make.

Kazakhstan left in 2000 or 2001 I think.

Uzbekistan was the team that played Bahrain in the qualifiers and got f***ed by AFC as they forced them to replay a game they had won!

[PSGman#19]

The world cup showed East asia >>> West Asia. the 3 teams from West asia failed big time.

[BacheLot]

The world cup showed East asia >>> West Asia. the 3 teams from West asia failed big time.

been so for decades now..! definitely been so in this century..!!

[ABalls]

Hell no. It makes our chances of making the world cup worse.

We're pretty much guaranteed qualification with the expansion of the WC from 32 to 48 teams.

AFC needs increased competition at all levels, mens and womens, youth through adult.

Russia into the AFC, in terms of venues, clubs, its national teams, professional coaches and personal along with resources is a huge positive for the AFC.

Looking forward to this, and also hopeful that Iran will be able to play quality Asian sides like Japan, Australia and even Saudi more often along with Russia. We deserve to be tested. AFC can model the qualifying much as CONCACAF does to ensure diversity in competition. AFC also should look into developing a Nations League with Africa. We cannot afford to let UEFA and South America run away with this thing!

[PSGman#19]

We're pretty much guaranteed qualification with the expansion of the WC from 32 to 48 teams.

AFC needs increased competition at all levels, mens and womens, youth through adult.

Russia into the AFC, in terms of venues, clubs, its national teams, professional coaches and personal along with resources is a huge positive for the AFC.

Looking forward to this, and also hopeful that Iran will be able to play quality Asian sides like Japan, Australia and even Saudi more often along with Russia. We deserve to be tested. AFC can model the qualifying much as CONCACAF does to ensure diversity in competition. AFC also should look into developing a Nations League with Africa. We cannot afford to let UEFA and South America run away with this thing!

Russian NT and club will drop in quality if they join AFC. Their clubs won't attract so many quality South Americans without Champions league

[Hosseini]

We're not guaranteed qualification. It's still going to be a grind that we will have to work hard for. We almost got knocked out in a group with Bahrain, Iraq, Hong Kong, and Cambodia two years ago remember?

Its still up in the air if we will even face Russia every year or so. We haven't played Saudi Arabia in 13 years and Australia in over 20. It depends on luck. It's not a guarantee we even face them so we wouldn't even supposedly benefit for sure from this "better competition"

We're pretty much guaranteed qualification with the expansion of the WC from 32 to 48 teams.

AFC needs increased competition at all levels, mens and womens, youth through adult.

Russia into the AFC, in terms of venues, clubs, its national teams, professional coaches and personal along with resources is a huge positive for the AFC.

Looking forward to this, and also hopeful that Iran will be able to play quality Asian sides like Japan, Australia and even Saudi more often along with Russia. We deserve to be tested. AFC can model the qualifying much as CONCACAF does to ensure diversity in competition. AFC also should look into developing a Nations League with Africa. We cannot afford to let UEFA and South America run away with this thing!

[BacheLot]

so is it confirmed Russia to AFC..?

We may still be somewhat guaranteed of WCQ with the expansion to 8 teams but making and or winning a AC Final will become much more difficult going forward and so will the continental club competition which was already an uphill climb considering the measly budget of our state owned clubs..!!

[oracle]

so is it confirmed Russia to AFC..?

We may still be somewhat guaranteed of WCQ with the expansion to 8 teams but making and or winning a AC Final will become much more difficult going forward and so will the continental club competition which was already an uphill climb considering the measly budget of our state owned clubs..!!

Russia national team will be baned until the war is over.
fifa is not going to suspend Russia, then 10 months later bring em back to afc 😆
I gurantee u that.

Clubs Might be different story might

[diz]

Russia national team will be baned until the war is over.
fifa is not going to suspend Russia, then 10 months later bring em back to afc 😆
I gurantee u that.

Clubs Might be different story might

Lol. Russia banned for war against neighbor that many argue they had historical/cultural/political ties to (at least in Eastern Ukraine).

US starts war half way across world in a country (Iraq) that had nothing to do with anything related to the US, but gets to host WC 2026.

[EZLN]

We're not guaranteed qualification. It's still going to be a grind that we will have to work hard for. We almost got knocked out in a group with Bahrain, Iraq, Hong Kong, and Cambodia two years ago remember?

Yes. Almost. But we ended up finishing first in qualifications in Asia. In fact we have never not been top 8 in AFC qualifications. Your skepticism is out-of-hand.

[Hosseini]

Yes. Almost. But we ended up finishing first in qualifications in Asia. In fact we have never not been top 8 in AFC qualifications. Your skepticism is out-of-hand.

This is because we had a joke of a group. The worst Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and UAE teams to date we were fortunate enough to play against. I don't think people realize how lucky we got. When it came to a strong Korea side, we lost 2-0. So rather not risk having to worry about Russia too when we have enough competition