Former Lokomotiv and Torpedo president Ilya Gerkus has expressed the absurd idea that the International Football Federation (FIFA) should include the "associations" of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia regions in its membership. The official, who had previously spoken cynically about the Hamas attack on Israel, called it an ideal plan for Russia.

Gercus said this in a commentary to the Match TV propaganda channel. He added that the Russian Football Union (RFU) needs to develop sports in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine by separate organizations and not include them in its status.

"It is right to develop football in new regions, and it is also right to develop it separately from the Russian Federation. Ideally, they should be made separate members of FIFA, and a football federation should be created, following the example of Hong Kong, Gibraltar, and the Faroe Islands. This is a global practice. Does SMO (as the Russian Federation shamefully calls the war against Ukraine - ed.) prevent this? I agree. But the situation will have to be resolved at some point. Perhaps this is one of the ways," the representative of the aggressor country said.

Earlier, Russian Football Federation Secretary General Maxim Mitrofanov said that the European Football Union (UEFA) is studying which countries Russian national teams can play with. Earlier, UEFA refused to approve the return of youth teams from Russia to its tournaments. At the same time, the media found out the details of this decision.

As OBOZ.UA previously reported, legendary Ukrainian footballer Andriy Shevchenko enraged the Russians with his positive reaction to UEFA's decision to uphold the suspension of Russia.

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