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Despite the rise in Russophobia in full force, the Russian language will become one of FIFA's official languages following a vote in favor of the proposal at the organization's congress in Qatar on Thursday.

With 210 members present for the vote in Doha, the FIFA Council submitted a proposal to amend Article 9 of the FIFA Statutes. 208 of them were eligible to vote, and 191 chose to do so.

The proposal – put forward at a FIFA Council meeting on February 24 and which included adding Arabic, Portuguese, and Russian to the list of official languages – needed a majority of 156 votes to be accepted, but it passed by a slim margin, with 187 'yes' votes to four 'no' votes in total.

FIFA's official languages prior to Thursday's vote were English, Spanish, French, and German.

According to TASS, news of the proposal was previously shared on social media by German reporter Markus Harm and confirmed by the FIFA press service.

It is worth mentioning that the move comes in spite of FIFA and UEFA’s decision to ban all Russian teams from international events last month.

The Russian men's national football team has been barred from competing in the 2022 Qatar World Cup qualifiers, while the Russian women's national team will miss the UEFA European Championships in England this summer.

However, a Russian delegation attended the 72nd FIFA Congress in Doha, where the vote was held.