The Chairman of the Board of Directors of Gazprom, Viktor Zubkov, football player from Zenit, Alexander Kerzhakov, former captain of the Russian all-star team and ambassador of FIFA 2018, Alexei Smertin, Brazilian football player, Julio Baptist, Secretary General of FIFA, Fatma Samura, Chief Commercial Officer of FIFA, Philippe Le Floc’h, participated in the event. The author of the famous chewing gum pictures Love Is, artist Bill Asprey, presented a series of posters “Football for Friendship.”

Over 1,000 guests from 64 countries participated in the event: young football players (boys and girls, including disabled), journalists from the leading international media, football stars, Olympic and Paralympic Games champions, legends and leaders of FIFA, Russian Olympic Committee and international children’s charitable foundations and heads of football federations.

“Football for Friendship” is an international children’s social project of Gazprom PJSC that has been in effect since 2013 within the global programme “Gazprom for Children” and includes a series of sports and educational events in various countries in the world.

The purpose of the initiative is to develop children’s football, educate in tolerance and respect for different cultures and nationalities in children from different countries.

“Football for Friendship” is supported by such famous football players as Vitor Baia, Didier Drogba, Anatoliy Tymoshchuk, Luis Neto, Ralf Fährmann as well as the football associations and federations of many countries, including FIFA and UEFA.