On 18-19 October the delegation of the Football Federation of Italy headed by President Carlo Tavecchio rendered an official visit to Moscow, as the official FUR website informs.

During the visit on 19 October the Memorandum on cooperation between FUR and FFI was singed in the House of Football. The singing ceremony was attended by FUR President, Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko, FUR CEO Alexander Alaev and FUR Deputy CEO Ekaterina Fedyshina on behalf of the Football Union of Russia and FFI President Carlo Tavecchio, FFI CEO Michele Uva and FFI Adviser to the President Mario Gallavotti.

«We have very close and good relations with the Football Federation of Italy. It deals with the cooperation on sports and political issues what we actually confirmed at the recent UEFA President elections  having united our efforts. It also deals with staging joint tournaments, projects, cooperation at the level of national teams, training of specialists, coaches and referees.

We have an agreement with Italy on friendly matches between our A-teams. One game is planned in November 2017 in Italy. One more match before the 2018 FIFA World Cup, approximately in June 2018 in Russia is under consideration", Vitaly Mutko said.

«We are ready to share our rich sports legacy for the benefit of the Russian football. The doors of the famous Coverciano Sports Center that we call a football university are open for Russian specialists. Besides, we have special technologies of installing artificial turfs that can be useful in Russia taking into consideration a severe climate. We are ready to cooperate with Russia on various issues. 

Today brand new relations between Italy and Russia have been set, this is a very important football alliance that will support  the football development in both countries. This alliance can bring positive changes to European and world football,"- Carlo Tavecchio noted in his turn. 

The agreement is aimed at strengthening and further developing close cooperation, knowledge and specialists exchange between FUR and FFI. The agreement, in particular, offers FUR the excess to FFI informational and consulting services, courses and infrastructure in Rome, including FFI Technical Department in Coverciano. Besides, FUR and FFI undertake an obligation to coordinate their efforts for the organization and staging friendly matches of A-men's teams, A-women's  teams, youth teams as well as futsal teams. Joint programs on players' developing and training as well as programs on promoting women's and grassroots football are planned.