Chelsea Joins Gazprom Football Programme

Gazprom, official partner of the UEFA Champions League, has announced Chelsea FC is set to join its corporate social responsibility project ‘Football for Friendship’.

‘Football for Friendship’ is coming to the UK later this month and is looking to use sport as a way of bringing together children aged 10-16 from across Europe, encouraging young people to live their lives through their love of sport. 

It will culminate in the world’s first International Children’s Forum for sport on the morning of the UEFA Champions League Final on 25th May in London. The Forum will also be hosted by Gazprom’s global ambassador for the scheme, football legend Franz Beckenbauer, and will give the kids involved the chance to quiz him about football and his life experiences in and out of the world of sport. 

It is part of the Gazprom for Children programme, which has spent 26.9 billion rubles (around £550 million) on improving sporting facilities for kids since 2007. 

This includes rebuilding both sports complexes and community sports grounds, engaging coaches and instructors, providing equipment and staging festivals and sports competitions for local kids.

Chelsea FC will be providing a team of kids to take part in the forum from one of their social inclusion programmes, Kickz; a national programme which uses the power of football to target disadvantaged areas. 

The Chelsea Foundation runs Kickz programmes in Wandsworth, Kensington and Chelsea, Hammersmith and Fulham and Westminster. The social aims of Kickz mirror those of ‘Football for Friendship’, which look to create safer, stronger, more respectful communities through the development of young people’s potential.

Minister for Sport and Tourism Hugh Robertson said: ‘The Football for Friendship scheme is a great opportunity for young people from across Europe to come together through the power of sport.’ 

‘The Kickz programme has been a huge success encouraging sports participation, helping to deliver on social cohesion and changing lives for the better. It’s great that participants from Westminster Kickz will be a part of Football for Friendship and attend the Champions League Final at Wembley, an experience that will no doubt live long in their memories.’