Vyacheslav Koloskov, Honorary President of the Russian Football Union (RFU), has categorically opposed Russia's withdrawal from UEFA and accession to the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). According to Koloskov, such a move would plunge Russia into a swamp from which it would not be able to escape for decades.

The football official compared this transition to how a football club would go down from the top league to the second or even amateur league.

"We are talking about the transition of the entire system of Russian football to Asia - it's not just the main national team and 5-6 clubs that participate in international tournaments. These are 15 national teams of different ages, mini-football, beach and women's football. We all fall into this swamp. There are no competitions for these age groups, for women's football, mini-football. We will simply die there," Koloskov said on Match TV.

According to the honorary president of the RFU, there are no guarantees that the Russian national team will participate in the World Cup qualifying tournament.

"There are 47 associations, we have to get at least 24 votes. Given the negative trends around the world, particularly in Asia, Australia, Japan, South Korea or Malaysia will never vote for us. This is a real risk. Even if we go there, no one guarantees that the national team will participate in the World Cup qualifiers. Many people forget that we are subject to FIFA sanctions, which apply to all continental confederations - Europe, Asia, South America. It may happen that we will pass, but the national team will not play qualifying matches," Koloskov concluded.

Earlier, former Russian national team footballer Alexander Samedov suggested that the Russian Football Federation should join the AFC. He noted that winning the Asian Champions League is not easy or prestigious.

It is worth noting that the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has not given any guarantees to Russia about its membership in the event of the aggressor country's withdrawal from the European zone. This is the reason for the decision of the Russian Football Union (RFU) to postpone the vote on the new status of the organisation, which was scheduled for December 27 and was considered an empty formality.

Russian fans called the decision of the Russian Football Federation to apply for membership in the AFC a shot in the dark.

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