The Union of European Football Associations is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach football in Europe and the transcontinental countries of Turkey, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Kazakhstan, as well as the West Asian countries of Cyprus, Armenia and Israel. UEFA consists of 55 national association members. Since 2022, due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, FIFA and UEFA suspended all Russian national teams and clubs from any FIFA and UEFA competitions.
Association football is the most popular sport in Russia, beating ice hockey by a huge margin. Men's football is overseen by the Russian Football Union, having the Russian Premier League as the first tier of the Russian football league system, with the Russian Football National League being the second tier.
The Ukraine national football team represents Ukraine in men's international football, and is governed by the Ukrainian Association of Football, the governing body for football in Ukraine. Ukraine's home ground is the Olimpiyskiy Stadium in Kyiv. The team has been a full member of UEFA and FIFA since 1992.
The Belarus national football team represents Belarus in men's international football, and is controlled by the Football Federation of Belarus, the governing body for football in Belarus. Belarus' home ground is Dinamo Stadium in Minsk. Since independence in 1991, Belarus has not yet qualified for a FIFA World Cup or UEFA European Championship.
The Russian Football Union is the official governing body of association football in the Russian Federation. With headquarters in Moscow, it organizes Russian amateur and professional football, including the men's, women's, youth, beach soccer, futsal and Paralympic national teams. The RFS sanctions referees and football tournaments for the Russian Premier League and other football leagues in Russia. RFS is headed by Aleksandr Dyukov, the CEO of Gazprom Neft.
The Belarus women's national football team represents Belarus in international women's football. The team is governed by the Football Federation of Belarus.
The Portugal women's national football team represents Portugal in international women's football competition. The team is controlled by the Portuguese Football Federation (FPF) and competes as a member of UEFA in various international football tournaments such as the FIFA Women's World Cup, UEFA Women's Euro, the Summer Olympics, and the Algarve Cup.
The Russia women's national football team represents Russia in international women's football. The team is controlled by the Russian Football Union and affiliated with UEFA. Yuri Krasnozhan replaced Elena Fomina as coach of the team in December 2020.
The Russia national football team represents Russia in men's international football. It is controlled by the Russian Football Union, the governing body for football in Russia. Russia's home ground is the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow and their head coach is Valery Karpin.
The Poland women's national football team represents Poland in international women's football. The team, controlled by the Polish Football Association, has never qualified for a major international tournament.
The 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification was the qualifying process which decided the 31 teams that would join hosts Qatar, who received an automatic spot, at the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
The Russia national under-17 football team, controlled by the Russian Football Union, represents Russia at the UEFA European Under-17 Championship, FIFA U-17 World Cup and international friendly match fixtures at the under-17 age level.
The Romania women's national under-17 football team is the national under-17 football team of Romania and is governed by the Romanian Football Federation.
The Russian national under-20 football team, formerly known as the Soviet national youth football team was the under-20 and under-19 football teams of the Soviet Union. It ceased to exist on the breakup of the Union, and was succeeded by the Russian national under-20 football team.
The Russian U-20 women's national football team is the national under-20 women's association football team of Russia, which is controlled by the Russian Football Union (RFS). They have won the UEFA European Women's Under-19 Championship in 2005 defeating France on penalties.
The European section of the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification acted as qualifiers for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, to be held in Qatar, for national teams that are members of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). A total of 13 slots in the final tournament were available for UEFA teams.
The 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup qualification process determined 30 of the 32 teams which will play in the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup, with the co-hosts Australia and New Zealand qualifying automatically. It is the ninth FIFA Women's World Cup, the quadrennial international women's football world championship tournament. The tournament is the first Women's World Cup to be hosted in multiple countries, the third by an AFC member association after the 1991 and 2007 Women's World Cups in China, the first to be held in the Southern Hemisphere, the first senior FIFA tournament in Oceania, and also the first FIFA tournament to be hosted across multiple confederations.
Women's association football is a largely amateur sport in Russia, given the greater emphasis of the male competitions. As of 2018, there were 30,000 women playing football in Russia, with over 11,000 playing at an amateur level and only 200 playing professionally in the eight teams of the Russian Women's Football Championship.
The second round of the qualification tournament for the 2022 FIFA World Cup from UEFA was contested by twelve teams from the UEFA segment of qualifying. The play-offs determined the final three European teams that joined the group winners at the World Cup in Qatar. The ten runners-up from the UEFA first round groups participated in the play-offs, along with two group winners from the 2020–21 UEFA Nations League. The teams were divided into three paths, each containing four teams, with each play-off path featuring two single-leg semi-finals, and one single-leg final. The matches took place in March and June 2022.
The European qualifying competition for the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup was a women's football competition that determined the eleven UEFA teams which directly qualified for the final tournament in Australia and New Zealand, and the one team which advanced to the inter-confederation play-offs.
Alexandr Schagov
7 - Alena Andreeva
