The national teams of Russia and Georgia will not be playing in the same group in the qualifying round for the FIFA World Cup 2014 to take place in Brazil.

­UEFA asked the football’s governing body to separate the teams from each other due to political reasons.

Relations between the two countries rapidly deteriorated after Georgia’s attack on South Ossetia back in August 2008, with the Russian Army being forced to intervene in order to protect the country’s citizens living in the breakaway republic, which Moscow now recognizes as a sovereign state.

Armenia and Azerbaijan are also to settle their scores behind the negotiation table, but not the football pitch, as the two former Soviet states are still in search of a solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh issue.

The draw for the World Cup 2014 qualifiers is scheduled to take place in Rio de Janeiro on July 30.

Fifty-three European teams will be divided into nine groups. Their winners will receive automatic qualification to Brazil, while eight second placed squads will have to take part in the playoff round.