The South Ossetian national team will take part in the European Championship, - said Sergei Zasseev, chairman of the Committee on Youth Policy, Sports and Tourism, at a press conference. A press conference for South Ossetian journalists was devoted to this sports forum, and the head coach of the RSO national team Soslan Kochiev also answered questions from the media.
The European Championship is organized by the Confederation of Independent Football Associations (ConIFA). It will be held in Nagorno-Karabakh from June 1 to 10.
“We were lucky, we got into the composition of 10 teams that will take part in the Championship. First of all, our team needs to show good, dynamic football in order for the fans to like the game. The composition of the team is already defined. The core of the backbone consists of the players of the only adult football team that is in the republic. In addition, we invited players, our countrymen playing in the clubs of North Ossetia,” said Zasseev.
He has noted that in view of the changes in the number of teams that must compete in the championship, the South Ossetian team does not know with whom it will play the first game.
“With whom the first game will take place, we don’t know yet, because initially there were 12 teams in the list and our group included Western Armenia and Szekey region. Now the composition of the teams has changed, as the two teams did not come, so the tournament grid is changing, and we do not know with whom our team will play,” Zasseev emphasized.
He has added that the Committee ordered equipment for the national team from “Arion “.
“A lot also depends on the form, and Arion sews very high-quality clothes. The fabric was purchased in Italy. We ordered three sets of forms for the team, ” he explained.
The head coach of the team of the RSO, Exiled Kochiev, has noted that they did not have enough time to fully prepare for the championship.
“We have been preparing the second week. The problem is that the players we invited, they play in the first and second Russian football leagues - these are experienced players, they have not yet been released by the teams, as the championships they end at the end of the month, so they will join us just before the departure. And at the moment there is a good microclimate in the team, we are getting ready,” Kochiev said.
The head coach has stressed that among the invited players there are such experienced players as Alexey Muldarov, Alexander Gagloev, David Dzhahov.
The Confederation of Independent Football Associations was established in 2013 and unites football associations and national teams of unrecognized or partially recognized countries that are not members of FIFA. Since 2014, South Ossetia has been accepted into this organization.
