The Big Interview: Gazprom

After announcing the return of the international children’s social project – Football For Friendship – for a fourth season, Vyacheslav Krupenkov, Gazprom’s senior managing director, Germania (above right with programme ambassador Franz Beckenbauer) speaks to sportindustry.biz about activating its official sponsorship of the UEFA Champions League in the grassroots community, and plans for the Final in Milan.

Why did Gazprom start Football for Friendship?

As a big corporation, one of our big tasks is to care for the younger generations. We understand that football is the best way to reach out to them. This is why we started the Football for Friendship project, which aims to promote nine key values: friendship, equality, fairness, health, peace, devotion, victory, traditions, and honor. Our aim is to bring these values to younger generations through football. This is the main task of the forum. It is not just self-promotion for Gazprom, but it is important for everybody involved, from the teams to ourselves, because we always learn a lot every year from the kids participating in the project. We truly believe football can be a tool to develop human values among younger generations. Therefore, this programme has been well received by everybody, not just from a business point of view. It is a great organisation, a very useful programme and we have great support. I hope this year we will enjoy the same great support in Milan!

The International Street Soccer Tournament kicks off in Milan in May, the day before the UEFA Champions League Final, with young children from all over Europe taking part – what will that entail exactly?

First of all, participants will have the chance to travel and visit a foreign country. They will visit Milan, which is going to be an experience they will never forget. It will certainly be one of the most memorable days of their lives. Participants are given a unique opportunity, and I am aware of several examples of participants (from previous years) who continued their careers as professional players in professional football clubs. If you have clear objectives in front of you, then you can achieve these objectives.

If you have a bit of luck as well it is very realistic to play football as a professional in a football club. I think this project will give the participants this opportunity. Then, if they’re ambitious they can do it. In a previous year, one child was invited to play for the professional team Red Star Belgrade (after competing in the tournament) and he received financial support from the club as well. Another boy playing for a Russian football club was later invited by CSKA Moscow and has since received an invitation from the national team of Georgia.

You have targeted grassroots football as a key area of your UEFA Champions League sponsorship, what was it that appealed to you about this area? 

The involvement of certain teams in our project can have a big impact on the development of football in the countries where those teams come from which is crucial for the younger generations living there. Football is a global game and it makes no difference what country you come from.

Not many people in these countries have the opportunity to see a UEFA Champions League game, not to mention the final. Imagine for a child from Vietnam or China to have the opportunity to be there. It could be their only chance in their whole life. I can see that these children are responding with great interest. I am sure that this will contribute to the growth of football in those countries. It’s not necessarily a fact that most of them will become professional football players.

We have already mentioned that the real goal of this project is to promote our key values, and that must be the most important thing for the children who participate in the programme. I’m sure many of the children have the vision and if they work hard they will all have the chance to continue their career in a professional football club. But this is not the most important thing. They have to develop their personality, this is our objective. If then we see children who have participated in the project playing in the Champions League Final we’ll be very proud of them!