"We had to": Russia's national football team withdraws from tournament in Asia

The Russian national football team has decided to decline the invitation to the CAFA-2023 tournament of the Central Asian Confederation. Representatives of the aggressor country did not elaborate on the reasons for this step, explaining it by some organisational difficulties.

This was stated in a comment to Championship.com by the General Secretary of the Russian Football Union (RFU) Maxim Mitrofanov. According to him, the Russian Federation continues to communicate with CAFA, and referees may be sent to the tournament, which will be the first in history.

"The Russian national team has refused to participate in the Central Asian Association championship. We have a number of organisational difficulties: unfortunately, we were forced to withdraw. I would not like to focus on our personal issues with CAFA. The players are currently undergoing a lot of physical activity, and there will be a very short break. Will the referees not go too? If our colleagues ask us, then, of course, we will agree. For our referees, this will also be the most important international experience. And CAFA has a lot of great talented referees," said Mitrofanov.

The CAFA-2023 championship will take place in June in Tashkent and Bishkek. Tajikistan, Iran, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and an unnamed Asian team are expected to take part in the tournament. The results of the games will go into the world rankings.

As OBOZREVATEL previously reported, Russian Federation Secretary General Maxim Mitrofanov accused the European Football Union (UEFA) of having decided to remove Russians from international tournaments "too quickly".

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