As national teams go, CIS’ 11 game stint in 1992 isn’t one filled with much glory. In fact, their 3-0 win over El Salvador was probably the only thing they had to shout about.
CIS or the Commonwealth of Independent States for short, were born in early 1992 after the Soviet Union ceased to exist. The only problem was that the Soviet Union had already booked their place at Euro 92. So to take their place, the CIS were born.
They played 11 times in total, including eight matches in the run up to the European Championships, but their performance in Sweden was pretty pathetic. After decent draws against Germany and the Netherlands, they lost 3-0 to Scotland. That’s when you know things are bad…
So bad in fact that shortly after the defeat to the Scots, the team was disbanded and its results transferred to the newly formed Russian national team. The CIS squad from Euro 92 included eight Russians, six Ukrainians (one was born in Germany), a Georgian, a Belarusian, an Abkhazian, a Circassian, and an Ossetian.
This shirt is an Adidas original from 1992 and features number 10 on the back which was worn by the infamous Igor Dobrovolski. Ok, maybe not that infamous… It’s nice to add a real retro shirt to the collection and it’s a pretty nice design to boot. Simple but effective. I know CIS aren’t technically non-FIFA as they actually played in a FIFA tournament but I thought adding some disbanded national teams would add a bit of variety to the blog!
No FIFA? No Problem! 