The Russian Football Union (RFU) has clarified why the national team’s planned summer tour of South America was called off. General Secretary Maxim Mitrofanov told Sport-Express that the cancellation was due to potential opponents being in the United States during that period.
Initially, the tour was scheduled for June 2026, but as TASS reported earlier, the 2026 FIFA World Cup will take place from June 11 to July 19 in the USA, Canada, and Mexico. Russia was not allowed to participate in the qualifying stage and will miss the tournament entirely. Despite this, Mitrofanov had previously mentioned in September 2025 that the RFU was planning several matches for the Russian national team in South America in June 2026.
“The tour of the Russian national team to South America has been canceled. The reason is that the teams we wanted to play against will be in the USA at that time,” Mitrofanov stated.
Since February 2022, the Russian national team has been suspended from international competitions due to the situation in Ukraine.