Prior to Independence in 1991, Ukrainian players represented the Soviet Union national team. After the collapse of the USSR in 1991, Russia took the place of the Soviet Union national team in the qualifying tournament for the 1994 World Cup. The national team of Ukraine did not manage to enter the 1994 FIFA World Cup qualification (the draw for the qualification stage was held on 8 December 1991, before Ukraine was admitted to FIFA). Meanwhile, some of the best Ukrainian players of the beginning of the 1990s (including Andrei Kanchelskis, Viktor Onopko, Sergei Yuran, Yuriy Nikiforov, Ilya Tsymbalar and Oleg Salenko) chose to play for Russia, as it was named the official successor of the Soviet Union. At that time Vyacheslav Koloskov was the only top official from the former Soviet Union and later the Russia who served as a vice-president of UEFA in 1980–1996 and represented all of members of the Soviet Union and later the Commonwealth of Independent States.