Royal Standard: what is the importance of the upcoming match between Russia and Jordan
The Russian national football team continues to find rivals for friendly matches in conditions of suspension from official international competitions. This week, the Russian Football Union (RFU) agreed with the Football Federation of the Kingdom of Jordan to hold a meeting between the national teams of the countries on the territory of our state.
The match will take place on September 4. The venue will be approved later. Jordan will become one of the Russians' strongest rivals in the three and a half years of the ban. Not so long ago, for the first time in its history, it reached the final of the World Cup, which will be held in the summer of 2026 in the USA, Canada and Mexico. A year and a half ago, this national team sensationally reached the final of the Asian Cup, losing only with a minimum score to the hosts of the tournament from Qatar (1:2).
Jordan is in 64th place in the FIFA ranking by the end of July 2025. While Russia is on the 36th line. The fact that our national team has not dropped much in the world table during the three and a half years of suspension is a consequence of the regular friendly matches that are used to calculate the rating. The meeting with Jordan will be no exception.
The Arab national team is one of the strongest sparring partners for Russia after February 2022. Only Iran (20th place), Serbia (32nd), Nigeria (44th), Cameroon (51st), Uzbekistan (55th) and Iraq (58th) are higher than her rivals in recent years. According to experts, the Russian football authorities have managed to make progress in the level of opponents for their main team compared to the games of the last year.
"Apart from Nigeria, we haven't had any rivals of this class in the last year and a half," Vyacheslav Koloskov, Honorary President of the Russian Football Federation, shared his opinion with Izvestia. — Last fall, the leadership of Russian football was severely criticized for holding matches with Vietnam, Brunei, Tunisia, and trying to negotiate with Pakistan, which eventually broke down at the last moment and did not come. But there was no other way out — we had to play with those who were ready to play matches with us anyway. And high—level national teams from friendly countries did not have the opportunity to play then - because of the busy calendar of matches of the UEFA Nations League and the selection for the World Cup, or because of other circumstances. But it's great that the RFU overcame this situation and, as soon as the first opportunity arose, reached an agreement with Jordan. This national team has been progressing a lot in recent years, having achieved the highest achievements in its history — the Asian Cup final and reaching the World Cup. So it will be extremely useful for Russia to play with her.
It is worth noting that the RFU has been steadily negotiating with rivals over the past two years to hold matches in Russia. In the previous two years, it was only in September that our team had double long-distance trips. In 2023, this month, Valery Karpin's team played away against Qatar (1:1) and the Egyptian Olympic team. (1:1; 1:2). A month later, we had a 2-2 match with Kenya on a neutral field in Turkey. And in September 2024, there was a trip to Vietnam, where Russia defeated the local national team (3-0), and then was supposed to meet Thailand there, but the game was canceled due to a storm warning.
Also in June 2024 and 2025, there were two close trips to Belarus, which ended with Russia's victories with a score of 4:0 and 4:1. Otherwise, regardless of the opponents, Russia has been playing games at home for two years now. Weak teams like Cuba (8-0), Brunei (11:0) and Tunisia (4-0) were able to be brought to the regions of Volgograd and Krasnodar. The remaining meetings with Cameroon (1-0), Serbia (4-0), Grenada (5-0), Zambia (5-0) and Nigeria (1-1) were held in Moscow. In almost all cases, it was possible to get the maximum attendance.
— The fans as a whole have shown that they are ready to come to the stands even in conditions when our national team does not participate in official tournaments, — said Dmitry Bulykin, a former striker of the Russian national team. — Which proves the need to hold such friendly matches even when we don't know how long to wait to return to the international arena. In any case, I am glad that the RFU is finding ways to keep the national team in good shape, the coaching staff can check its level and simply play out certain bundles between the players. Yes, sometimes the level of rivals leaves much to be desired, but in the case of Jordan, we can't complain about sparring — the team is now one of the best on its continent and is an excellent opponent, against which you can see your strengths and weaknesses.
Another date for the friendly match is also scheduled for early September. The opponent for the Russian national team has not yet been determined. Earlier it was reported that an agreement on the arrival of the Iranian national team in our country in October, with which the Russians played away in March 2023 (1:1).
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