CIS national football team

The Commonwealth of Independent States national football team (Russian: Сборная СНГ по футболу, Sbornaya SNG po futbolu) was a transitional national team of the Football Federation of the Soviet Union (non-existing country) in 1992. It was accepted that the team would represent the Commonwealth of Independent States that was formed as a loose union of former union republics.

This article is about the Commonwealth of Independent States football team. For the Canadian university Canadian football team, see Canadian Interuniversity Sport Football All-Canadian Team.
Commonwealth of Independent States
1992
Shirt badge/Association crest
AssociationFootball Federation of the Soviet Union
Head coachAnatoly Byshovets
Most capsDmitri Kharine (11)[lower-alpha 1]
Top scorerSergei Kiriakov (4)
Home stadiumVarious
FIFA codeCIS
First colours
Second colours
First international
 United States 0–1 CIS 
(Miami, United States; 25 January 1992)
Last international
 Scotland 3–0 CIS 
(Norrköping, Sweden; 18 June 1992)
Biggest win
 El Salvador 0–3 CIS 
(San Salvador, El Salvador; 29 January 1992)
Biggest defeat
 Mexico 4–0 CIS 
(Mexico City, Mexico; 8 March 1992)
European Championship
Appearances1 (first in 1992)
Best resultRound 1, 1992

The CIS team was created to allow the Soviet national team further participation as it had already booked a spot in Euro 1992 through the 1990–91 qualification tournament. The only way to preserve the spot for the post-Soviet team was to take part in the competition as a unified team.

With the end of Euro 1992, the Russia national team was recognized as the only successor of the CIS team.

Situation
Flag used by the CIS team at Euro 1992.

As the Soviet Union formally ceased to exist on 26 December 1991, so did all its organizations including the football federation. The Association of Football Federations of CIS was formed on 11 January 1992 and was approved by FIFA two days later. Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 was adopted as its anthem. Along with the Association, national federations of its members started to form and apply for international recognition.[1]

The CIS national football team was formed based on the USSR national football team which completed its participation in the Euro 1992 in June 1992. The CIS national football team was disbanded soon thereafter, and all its results were transferred to the Russia national football team that played its first game in August 1992.

Unlike the Yugoslav national football team which was barred from competitions during that time and replaced with the team of Denmark, FIFA and UEFA chose to preserve the former Soviet Union team and admitted to their rank a transnational team[1] for the first time in their history. UEFA was offered an additional qualifying tournament among former members of the Soviet Union,[1] but chose not only to ignore the offer and not to impose any sanctions against the non-existent political entity discriminating in the way against other former members of the Soviet Union, but also allowed the transnational entity to the European finals over national.

The CIS national football team was coached by Anatoly Byshovets. The team failed to achieve success in the 1992 European Football Championship, finishing last in the group, but achieved two notable draws with Germany and the Netherlands, before being beaten 3–0 by Scotland in what turned out to be their last match.

European Championship record
UEFA European Championship record Qualification Record
Year Round Position Pld W D L GF GA Squads Pld W D L GF GA
France 1960 played as  Soviet Union played as  Soviet Union
Spain 1964
Italy 1968
Belgium 1972
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia 1976
Italy 1980
France 1984
West Germany 1988
Sweden 1992 Group stage 8th 3 0 2 1 1 4 Squad
Total Group stage 8th 3 0 2 1 1 4 − —

Post-Soviet national federations

National federation members of the CIS association
Armenia Armenia18 January 1992National teamU-21 teamUEFA
Azerbaijan AzerbaijanMarch 1992National teamU-21 teamUEFA
Belarus Belarus1989National teamU-21 teamUEFA
Georgia (country) Georgia15 February 1936National teamU-21 teamUEFA
Kazakhstan KazakhstanMarch 1992National teamU-21 teamUEFA[1]
Kyrgyzstan Kyrgyzstan25 February 1992National teamU-23 teamAFC
Moldova Moldova14 April 1990National teamU-21 teamUEFA
Russia Russia8 February 1992National teamU-21 teamUEFA
Tajikistan Tajikistan1936National teamU-23 teamAFC
Turkmenistan Turkmenistan1992National teamU-23 teamAFC
Ukraine Ukraine13 December 1991National teamU-21 teamUEFA
Uzbekistan Uzbekistan1946National teamU-23 teamAFC

1. ^ Kazakhstan were affiliated with the AFC from 1994 until 2002, when they joined UEFA.

National federations outside the CIS association
Estonia Estonia14 December 1921National teamU-21 teamUEFA
Latvia Latvia1921National teamU-21 teamUEFA
Lithuania Lithuania9 December 1922National teamU-21 teamUEFA

UEFA Euro 1992 squad

Head coach: Russia Anatoliy Byshovets

No. Pos. Player Date of birth (age) Caps Club
1 1GK Russia Dmitri Kharine (1968-08-16)16 August 1968 (aged 23) 12 Russia CSKA Moscow
2 2DF Russia Andrey Chernyshov (1968-01-07)7 January 1968 (aged 24) 23 Russia Spartak Moscow
3 2DF Georgia (country) Kakhaber Tskhadadze (1968-09-07)7 September 1968 (aged 23) 5 Russia Spartak Moscow
4 2DF Ukraine Akhrik Tsveiba[upper-alpha 1] (1966-09-10)10 September 1966 (aged 25) 22 Ukraine Dynamo Kyiv
5 2DF Ukraine Oleh Kuznetsov (1963-03-22)22 March 1963 (aged 29) 60 Scotland Rangers
6 3MF Russia Igor Shalimov (1969-02-02)2 February 1969 (aged 23) 23 Italy Foggia
7 3MF Ukraine Oleksiy Mykhaylychenko (1963-03-30)30 March 1963 (aged 29) 38 Scotland Rangers
8 4FW Russia Andrei Kanchelskis (1969-01-23)23 January 1969 (aged 23) 20 England Manchester United
9 3MF Belarus Sergei Aleinikov (1961-11-07)7 November 1961 (aged 30) 75 Italy Lecce
10 3MF Russia Igor Dobrovolski (1967-08-27)27 August 1967 (aged 24) 26 Switzerland Servette
11 4FW Russia Sergei Yuran (1969-06-11)11 June 1969 (aged 22) 13 Portugal Benfica
12 1GK Russia Stanislav Cherchesov (1963-09-02)2 September 1963 (aged 28) 10 Russia Spartak Moscow
13 4FW Russia Sergei Kiriakov (1970-01-01)1 January 1970 (aged 22) 8 Russia Dynamo Moscow
14 4FW Ukraine Volodymyr Lyutyi (1962-04-20)20 April 1962 (aged 30) 5 Germany MSV Duisburg
15 4FW Russia Igor Kolyvanov (1968-03-06)6 March 1968 (aged 24) 22 Italy Foggia
16 3MF Russia Dmitri Kuznetsov (1965-08-28)28 August 1965 (aged 26) 17 Spain Espanyol
17 3MF Russia Igor Korneev (1967-09-04)4 September 1967 (aged 24) 5 Spain Espanyol
18 2DF Russia Viktor Onopko (1969-10-14)14 October 1969 (aged 22) 1 Russia Spartak Moscow
19 3MF Russia Igor Lediakhov (1968-05-22)22 May 1968 (aged 24) 7 Russia Spartak Moscow
20 2DF Russia Andrei Ivanov (1967-04-06)6 April 1967 (aged 25) 3 Russia Spartak Moscow
  1. Tsveiba was capped once by Ukraine, in 1992. He switched allegiance to Russia in 1997, earning eight caps.

In total, the CIS squad contained seven Russians, eight Ukrainians (one born in Germany), a Georgian, a Belarusian, an Abkhazian, a Circassian, and an Ossetian. Caps included games played for the Soviet team as well as the CIS. Some players simultaneously played for other national teams such as Kakhaber Tskhadadze (Georgia) and Akhrik Tsveiba (Ukraine).

Russia qualified for the 1994 FIFA World Cup in the United States with the bulk of the Euro 1992 CIS squad but due to the incident with the Letter of fourteeners in November 1993, Igor Shalimov, Igor Dobrovolsky, Igor Kolyvanov, Sergei Kiriakov, Vasili Kulkov, and Andrei Kanchelskis were excluded from the national team. Oleg Salenko and Andrei Ivanov, who also signed the letter, eventually withdrew their signatures. Tsveiba and Chernyshov were later called to the Russia national football team.

Some players resumed their international careers with their respective individual nations; however, many preferred to play for Russia. Although almost one third of the team were from Ukraine, only two Ukrainian players ever played for the Ukraine national football team, while another four chose to play for the Russian national team.

See also

Notes
  1. Includes two FIFA-sanctioned friendlies against Mexico, that were not registered with the Russian Football Federation.

References
  1. Іменем України. Як народжувалася наша збірна. sportarena.com. 29 April 2017
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