One of the most important events of 2022 was, without a doubt, the invasion of the Russian army in Ukraine. In many ways, the war brought about change and sport was not on the sidelines.

Russian athletes were banned from various competitions and more than anything else complications arose for them federations of this countrysports organizations that they practically became global pariahs.

The Russian Football Association (RFU), organizer of the 2018 World Cup, suddenly found himself Banned by UEFA and banned from the road to Qatar in 2022 when he was two games away from qualifying for the World Cup. The panorama does not seem to change ahead of the 2026 World Cup, with Almost all of Europe is turning politically to the side of Ukraine.

Russian teams have been marginalized from national team tournaments, barely able to coordinate friendly with Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan after even Bosnia-Herzegovina canceled a match for them due to the pressure they received. and its associations, some of great economic power such as e.g CSKA Moscow or Zenit St. Petersburgused to being UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League stars in recent decades, suddenly they don’t have international competitions what to dispute

Russia were also excluded from Euro 2024 qualifiers, which start in 2023, and fortunes unlikely to change ahead of UEFA’s 2026 World Cup qualifiers, in a context in which the war with Ukraine does not stop. Besides, if you do, Relations with European countries have been seriously affected. Given this scenario, there seems to be only one way for the Russian Football Union if it wants to compete again: demonstrate its status as a transcontinental country and go to Asian Football Confederation, AFC.

Why will Russia change confederation?

Aleksander Dyukov, chairman of the RFU, said: “We all know the strengths of European football, but we don’t know themOr we see the light at the end of the tunnel. In the meantime, AFC is open to receive us. Also, we have to say, unfortunately we are distancing ourselves a lot from Europe ideologically”.. He called a special committee meeting for Tuesday, December 27 to discuss the matter, though the vote on the proposal was postponed. “The postponement is due to the need for additional consultations on Russia’s possible transition to the AFC. The vote is scheduled to take place on December 31, 2022″They said in a statement.

With most of Russia’s territory in Asia, in addition to the fact that its major clubs are located in Moscow, on the European side, the decision would not seem too arbitrary, although it would involve several important changes.

First of all, it would not be a guarantee that Russia can participate in the 2026 World Cup: his team would be one of the strongest in Asia and a strong contender to occupy one of the eight or nine places in the AFC for the next World Cup, far more than in UEFA, but They could continue to be banned by FIFA from playing in world tournaments in any discipline, including beach soccer and futsalsports in which they are even much stronger globally than in traditional football.

According to Russian broadcaster Match TV, a FIFA source said they would not oppose Russia if it moves to the AFC.

Beyond that, what FIFA could not prevent is that Russiaif accepted by AFC, compete in continental competitions in Asiaboth national teams and clubs.

What does Russia need to be accepted in Asia?

To be accepted by the AFC, Russia would have to be approved by its executive committee, which is chaired by the sheikh. Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa of Bahrain. According to the Guardian, AFC powerhouses such as Australia, Japan and South Korea are expected to reject Russia, while others such as Iran, China or North Korea may be inclined to support them. The country led by Vladimir Putin has a a much larger number of geopolitical allies in Asia than in Europe.

However, this measure could also be opposed on Russian soil: for their clubs there would be a great financial and sporting loss if the competition with the European giants had to play in Asiawith much longer journeys (Australia is more than 11,000km from Moscow), fewer prizes, less exposure and less sporting ambition.

They would be excellent contenders in the AFC tournaments and have a better chance of reaching the Club World Cup if FIFA mandates them, but little more than that. Although maybe in UEFAwhere even up until 2020-2021 they had three Champions League qualification spots with two direct entries into the group stage, They are at no point of return.

Which teams have already changed confederations? The background to the Russia affair

In the past there was various backgrounds of confederations that changed confederations, all transfers involving the Asian Football Confederation.

The rejection of Australia and New Zealand by the AFC led to the formation of the OFC in Oceania in the mid-1960s: New Zealand stayed in, but Australia left in 1972 to try to rejoin the AFC, rejected again, returned in the OFC in 1978 and It was only in 2005 that he managed to be accepted into the AFCwhich he already represented at the World Cups in South Africa 2010, Brazil 2014, Russia 2018 and Qatar 2022 (A Germany 2006 ranked as a member of the OFC).

The last change was that of the Junior Federation Northern Mariana Islandswhich is not affiliated with FIFA but was affiliated with OFC between 1998 and 2009 until that year moved to AFC.

The other case of the 21st century was that of the Federation Kazakhstan, another transcontinental country like Russia, Azerbaijan or Turkey, all UEFA members. The Kazakhs played in the AFC from 1994, following their independence from the Soviet Union, until 2002, when they succeeded in fulfilling their wish to move to UEFA, which for example allows their clubs to play in UEFA Champions Cup although he is making his way to the World Cup group for his team.

For political reasons like that of Russia today, cases Chinese Taipei and Israel.

The former, at enmity with mainland China, kicked out of the AFC in 1974 and had to join the OFCNevertheless they returned to the Asian confederation in 1989 since he had even suffered a political suspension in the middle.

Israel began joining the AFC in 1954, but was expelled in 1974 Faced with ongoing problems with Arab countries, several in the confederation, unwilling to deal with them, boycotted the matches: in 1958 they almost qualified for the World Cup without having to play qualifying matches due to this fact (FIFA forced them to play-off against Wales, which they lost).

Thus, Israel remained unaffiliated with a confederation for more than 20 years, participating in both UEFA, OFC and even Conmebol tournaments and qualifiers until in 1992 it was included in UEFA.