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Chelsea becomes Gazprom’s 11th sport partner

In football, Gazprom also sponsors Zenit (St. Petersburg), Volga (Nizhny Novgorod), Sakhalin (Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk), Schalke-04 (Germany) and Crvena Zvezda in Serbia

Photo EPA/ITAR-TASS

Photo EPA/ITAR-TASS

LONDON, July 22 (Itar-Tass) — The London-based football club Chelsea has become the 11th sport partner of the Russian gas monopoly Gazprom. In football, Gazprom also sponsors Zenit (St. Petersburg), Volga (Nizhny Novgorod), Sakhalin (Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk), Schalke-04 (Germany) and Crvena Zvezda in Serbia.

Gazprom also sponsors Zenit-Kazan volley-ball team and SKA (St. Petersburg) ice-hockey squad.

The Russian natural monopoly will be an official sponsor of the Champions’ League and the UEFA Super Cup for the next three seasons.

A contract with Gazprom is definitely positive for the English club. Earlier, Gazprom’s chief Alexey Miller said that Gazprom was planning to build two new lines of the Nord Stream pipeline, one of which will run through the United Kingdom.

Under a three-year sponsorship contract Gazprom will cover part of Chelsea’s energy expenses. In turn, it will get broad opportunities for advertising.

Vitaly Vasilyev, the head of Gazprom’s sister company operating in the U.K. (Gazprom Marketing & Trading Limited), noted that Gazprom was happy to cooperate with Chelsea.

“Energy partnership with Europe’s club champions provides us with a global platform for further advancement in European and world markets. We are looking forward to joint work in the three forthcoming seasons,” Vasilyev emphasized.

In the meantime, Russia’s national air carrier Aeroflot has become the general sponsor of the CSKA football club for the second time. Aeroflot’s General Director Vitaly Savelyev and Yevgeny Giner, the president of the CSKA professional football club, signed a relevant agreement in Moscow.

“Aeroflot and the CSKA are once again uniting their forces. This is a well-weighed and tried and true business project, which already showed its effectiveness in the past. I am sure it’s going to prove it again,” Savelyev said.

The sponsorship agreement was concluded for the years 2012-2013. Aeroflot will allocate 9 billion dollars to the CSKA. For its part, the sport club has committed itself to render advertising services to Aeroflot and promote its brand in Russia and abroad.

“Aeroflot is the only Russian air company which sponsors a football club.

Aeroflot traditionally supports Russian sport and the Olympic movement. It is the official carrier of the Russian sport delegation to the XXX Olympic Games in London and the general partners of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi.

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