Bosnia-Herzegovina agree to play Russia in friendly despite ongoing Fifa ban and Ukraine invasion

Kyrgyzstan will also face the suspended nation in their first fixture for almost a year

Russia pose before a 2022 Qatar World Cup qualifiers in Cyprus (AFP via Getty Images)

The football federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina have confirmed that a friendly match against Russia has been arranged for November.

Russia as a nation has been widely reprimanded and sanctioned by political, financial and sporting bodies since the invasion of Ukraine began in February of this year, with football’s governing organisation, Fifa, handing a worldwide ban to all Russian national and club-level teams from both Fifa’s own competitions and Uefa’s.

That ban is still in place and included Russia being withdrawn from both the 2022 World Cup qualifying play-offs and the Women’s Euro 2022 tournament this past summer, after an appeal against the decision was lost in July.

As such, Russia have not played a senior men’s international game since 14 November 2021.

However, they are now set to return with at least two friendlies across the coming months, with both Kyrgyzstan and Bosnia confirming fixtures to be played.

The Kyrgyz side rank 95th in world football, below Luxembourg and just above Vietnam, and compete in the Asian Football Confederation zone. They have set their fixture against Russia for 24 September - during the upcoming international break - on home soil in Bishkek, as the first game for the banned nation in 10 months.

Bosnia and Herzegovina, ranked 57th, will then play Russia in St. Petersburg on 19 November, they have announced - the day before the World Cup finals starts in Qatar.

Fifa’s ban does not cover non-competitive fixtures, meaning Russia are free to arrange their own games.

However, many individual athletes across other sports have voiced opposition to Russians and Belarussians partaking in competition, while other sports have either banned those nations for participating or instructed teams and athletes to compete under a neutral flag.

Wimbledon opted against allowing players from those nations to play at the tennis championships this past summer, while athletes at the Winter Paralympics were also banned earlier this year after the IPC backtracked on an initial decision to allow them to enter.