CIS national football team

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
Association	Football Federation of the Soviet Union
Head coach	Anatoly Byshovets
Most caps	Dmitri Kharine (11)
Top scorer	Sergei Kiriakov (4)
Home stadium	Various
FIFA code	CIS
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
Appearances	1 (first in 1992)
Best result	Group stage (1992)

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.

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.

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 for the first time in their history. UEFA was offered an additional qualifying tournament among former members of the Soviet Union, 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
1960	played as Soviet Union										played as Soviet Union
1964
1968
1972
1976
1980
1984
1988
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	18 January 1992	National team	U-21 team	UEFA
Azerbaijan	March 1992	National team	U-21 team	UEFA
Belarus	1989	National team	U-21 team	UEFA
Georgia	15 February 1936	National team	U-21 team	UEFA
Kazakhstan	March 1992	National team	U-21 team	UEFA
Kyrgyzstan	25 February 1992	National team	U-23 team	AFC
Moldova	14 April 1990	National team	U-21 team	UEFA
Russia	8 February 1992	National team	U-21 team	UEFA
Tajikistan	1936	National team	U-23 team	AFC
Turkmenistan	1992	National team	U-23 team	AFC
Ukraine	13 December 1991	National team	U-21 team	UEFA
Uzbekistan	1946	National team	U-23 team	AFC

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

National federations outside the CIS association

Estonia	14 December 1921	National team	U-21 team	UEFA
Latvia	1921	National team	U-21 team	UEFA
Lithuania	9 December 1922	National team	U-21 team	UEFA

UEFA Euro 1992 squad

Head coach: Anatoliy Byshovets

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

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

• Unified Team at the Olympics, the Olympic counterpart
  • Unified Team at the 1992 Summer Olympics
  • Unified Team at the 1992 Winter Olympics
• Unified Team at the Paralympics, the Paralympic counterpart
  • Unified Team at the 1992 Summer Paralympics
  • Unified Team at the 1992 Winter Paralympics

External links

• USSR national football team Archived 2009-07-07 at the Wayback Machine (in Russian)