Former Russian national team player Igor Shalimov called on the aggressor country to join the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). The participant of two European Championships was outraged by the fact that the Russian youth national teams refused to return to European tournaments.

Shalimov said this in a comment to Championship.com. The former defender of Italian Fiorentina, Inter, Bologna and Napoli complained about the "complete mess" in the European Football Union (UEFA), with Russian representatives having "nothing to do."

"I don't know why UEFA is doing this at all. It shows that there is a complete mess and pressure there. I don't see any sense in returning to Europe anymore. We need to take serious steps to move to Asia. There is no chance for Europe at all. There was a decision in favor of the youth national team, then several national teams refused because of pressure from above and UEFA could do nothing. They are hostages of politics and this will never end. This is a signal that it's time to stop waiting and consider the option of leaving Europe as there is nothing to do there," Shalimov said.

As a reminder, after UEFA's initial decision to return Russians to its tournaments, 12 countries announced a boycott of the aggressor country's representatives at once.

As OBOZREVATEL previously reported, the honorary president of the Russian Football Union (RFU) Vyacheslav Koloskov lost hope after UEFA reversed its decision to allow the Russian U-17 national teams to participate.

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