MOSCOW (Reuters) – World champions in 2021, Russia’s men’s beach football team are unlikely to have a chance to defend their title in 2024 but the players and coaches remain hopeful they can one day escape the sporting wilderness and return to the international stage.
European governing soccer body UEFA and global equivalent FIFA decided all Russian teams – national or club sides – would be suspended from their competitions following Moscow’s decision to despatch troops to Ukraine in February 2022.
That applies to beach football too and, while the ban is clearly negative for Russia, captain Anton Shkarin believes the wider game has also suffered.
“When you disconnect a national team such as ours, the class falls immediately,” he told Reuters at a training session in Moscow. “We communicate well with the guys from Europe who play and everyone is upset that we’re banned.”
Russia hosted and won a friendly tournament in St Petersburg this month, beating top sides Iran, Senegal and the United Arab Emirates – next year’s World Cup hosts.
Asked whether not playing official matches was hard, Fedor Zemskov said his personal motivation had only grown and that Russia as a whole needed to have a little self-reflection.
“We have no right to say, ‘It’s hard for us’,” said Zemskov. “Because there are people who have it harder. We have the opportunity to keep on doing our favourite thing, playing football, bringing joy to spectators.”
Head coach Mikhail Likhachev, a three-time world champion, said: “For football players, for sports people in general, for coaches, this is, of course, not the best situation because being banned from a thing you are the best in the world at is very difficult.”
Several Olympic sports have readmitted athletes from Russia and Belarus as neutrals, angering some countries that think they should not be granted a pathway to the Games.
Russia on Thursday said it would organise a competition next year for members of the BRICS alliance – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
Russian authorities argue it is discriminatory to ban the country’s athletes and deprive them of national symbols such as their flag or anthem, but the players said they would jump at that chance to compete.
“It’s better to play than not to play,” said goalkeeper Stanislav Kosharnyi. “So at the first opportunity they allow it, I’ll be all for it.”
Ultimately, players have to decide for themselves, said Zemskov.
“For me personally, nothing has changed. I’ll keep on defending my country’s colours.”
(Reporting by Alexey Petrov; Writing by Alexander Marrow; Editing by Ken Ferris)
